-^Xil'i-t 


'^':^^. 


•soag;  piox^x 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from  - 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/ajaxdefiedlightnOOdougrich 


AJAX  DEFIED  THE  LIGHTNING 


444305 


Copyright  1920 

by 

LeoD  F.  Dou(;^>^<a 


TO 

ELDRIDGE   R.JOHNSON 

A  fair-minded  and  moat  unselfish  man, 
who  has  been  my  inspiration  and  guide 


LEON  F.  DOUGLASS 

San  Rafael,  California 

June,  1919 


AJAX  DEFIED  THE  LiGHTNllVfc    *  * 

Ajax,  it  is  said,  defied  the  lightning.  If  he  did,  he  was  a 
fool.  A  zip-cr-r-ack,  and  Ajax,  as  the  old  Latins  would  tell 
us,  "has  been."  Far  saner  would  he  have  proved  himself, 
had  he  allowed  the  thunder  to  do  the  talking,  while  he  quietly 
slipped  out  of  his  armor  and  made  record  time  for  the  nearest 
shelter.  When  the  lightning  was  zigzagging  in  the  sky  it 
was  time  for  him  to  get  in  out  of  the  rain.  It  was  silly  stage- 
play  to  defy  the  forces  of  Nature.  He  had  nothing  to  gain. 
He  had  everything  to  lose.  Jupiter  needn't  have  been  very 
particular  in  taking  aim:  a  coat-of-mail  would,  by  its  very 
attractiveness,  have  drawn  the  bolt  to  the  right  spot.  Ajax, 
we  repeat,  was  a  fool,  and  every  sensible  man  will  agree 
with  us.  Far  wiser  was  Franklin.  He  wooed  the  Nature 
that  Ajax  had  defied,  and  with  a  simple  plaything  of  child- 
hood enriched  mankind  with  forces  that  have  made  the  mod- 
ern world.  "Thy  eye,"  said  the  lover  in  Shakespeare,  "Jove's 
lightning  bears,  thy  voice  his  dreadful  thunder,  Which,  not 
to  anger  bent,  is  music  and  sweet  fire."  (Love's  Labor  Lost.) 
Defy  Nature,  contend  with  Nature  and  you  reap  destruction ; 
bend  to  her  will,  observe  her  laws,  and  the  discords  of  life 
will  be  blended  into  music,  the  dross  of  our  humanity  will  be 
purified  by  her  sacred  fire.  Ajax,  defiance  of  Nature,  war, 
decadence;  Franklin,  conformity  with  Nature,  peace,  prog- 
ress; good  and  evil,  to  be  determined  by  choice;  this  is  the 
lot  of  human  life.  The  choice  is  life  to  the  individual.  The 
choice  is  fife  to  the  race.  The  part  of  Ajax  is  manifold  and 
many  play  it  unaw^es.  In  condemning  him  it  behooves  us 
to  examine  in  how  far  we  are  condemning  ourselves. 

[11 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

'  '  J*or  the  Laws  of  Nature  are  not  those  only  that  regulate 
and  harmonize  mere  material  existence;  that  now  bind  now 
separate  the  atoms  in  her  wondrous  laboratory;  nor  to  these 
that  robe  the  earth  in  verdure;  that  swell  in  the  bud  and 
ripen  in  the  fruit;  that  pulse  in  the  sea,  and  vibrate  in  the 
sun,  and  bind  the  spheres  in  harmonious  unity.  Her  sway 
is  not  limited  to  these.  She  reaches  up  into  the  higher  lives 
of  her  children  and  establishes  laws  for  our  humanity  which, 
if  observed,  are  more  beneficent  than  electricity,  if  defied  or 
even  deviated  from,  are  more  destructive  than  the  thunder- 
bolt. Far  back  in  the  ages  she  had  formed  all.  In  each  in- 
stance she  rules  all.  Nothing  is  too  small  to  escape  her 
notice:  nothing  too  great  to  tax  her  power.  Her  laws  are 
universal  and  fixed.  Strive  as  we  may,  rebel  as  we  may,  we 
cannot  escape  them. 

All  successful  human  laws,  therefore,  must  be  based  upon 
the  Laws  of  Nature.  For  the  solution  of  the  problems  of 
every  phase  of  life,  conformity  to  Nature's  code  is  necessary, 
for  she  is  the  source  and  the  guide,  the  ultimate  rule  of  all 
human  achievement. 

And  note  how  wonderfully,  and  simply,  and  on  what 
broad  lines  she  proceeds.  The  beauty  and  fairness  of  Na- 
ture is,  that  she  makes  one  set  of  laws  for  all.  Rich  or  poor, 
strong  or  weak,  great  or  small,  all  must  obey  alike.     She 

knows  no  favoritism.     She  grants  no  exemption.     Her  laws 

'  .  . 

are  immutable.     She  judges  impartially  and  punishes  in- 

falhbly  all  transgressors.  Human  law  is  imperfect,  hence 
its  need  of  equity.  Where  equity  is  absent,  there  enter  privi- 
lege, immunity,  exemption,  partiality.  Exemptions  breed 
jealousies;  and  jealousies,  war.    Were  man  to  conform  to 

121 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

and  co-operate  with  Nature's  laws,  we  would  enjoy  a  para- 
dise on  earth;  by  ignoring  and  violating  them,  we  have  the 
world  as  it  is. 

But  Nature  not  only  supplies  a  rule  for  human  conduct, 
she  is  equally  generous  in  supplying  a  remedy  for  every 
human  ill.  Selfishness,  envy,  greed,  egotism  and  vanity  are 
the  most  common  failings  of  mankind.  They  are  devilations 
from  the  beauty  of  her  ideal,  but  Nature  is  never  thwarted. 
Love  undermines  the  fortress  of  selfishness;  open-handedness 
will  level  the  ramparts  of  envy;  shame  will  put  greed  to 
flight;  the  desire  for  the  respect  of  our  fellowmen  will  fetter 
our  egotism  and  vanity.  Man  is  ruled  by  the  degree  of  in- 
telligence bestowed  on  him  by  Nature.  His  every  act  is 
weighed  in  her  unerring  scale.  When  by  his  misdeeds  he 
violates  virtue,  Nature  punishes  him  that  she  may  restore 
the  balance  she  exacts  of  all.  To  see  her  equalize  the  bal- 
ance, we  have  only  to  consider  the  simple,  ordinary  in- 
cidents of  every-day  life,  in  which  selfishness,  greed,  envy, 
egotism  and  vanity  forai  the  chief  cast,  with  selfishness  in 
the  leading  role. 

It  behooves  us,  therefore,  to  bend  to  her  wise  and  potent 
sway,  and  accept,  with  a  willing  heart,  laws  that  are  made 
solely  for  our  benefit.  The  farmer  must  observe  them  if  he 
wishes  the  earth  to  open  up  her  treasures.  The  doctor's  work 
is  vain  if  Nature  withhold  her  aid.  For  every  poison  she 
has  supplied  an  antidote.  No  scientist  can  invent  success- 
fully except  by  strict  adherence  to  her  laws.  The  manufac- 
turer knows  that  he  must  make  no  effort  to  evade  them.  All 
success  in  life  is  their  product — attempts  at  evasion  result 
inevitably  in  failure. 

[3] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning, 

The  framers  of  human  laws,  however,  from  time  imme- 
morial, have  foolishly  sought  to  evade  Nature's  precepts  and 
have  broken  the  higher  code;  and  the  pages  of  history  are 
stained  with  the  tears  of  the  millions  who  have  suffered  in 
consequence.  Defiance  of  them  is  the  defiance  of  Ajax,  and 
we  know  him  for  a  fool.  It  is  because  human  laws  and  hu- 
man lives  conflict  with  Nature's  laws,  that,  in  retahation, 
she  punishes  us  with  strikes  and  rebellions,  and  unleashes 
upon  humanity  the  dogs  of  war. 

We  do  not  need  to  delve  deeply  into  the  records  of  the 
past  to  prove  our  assertion,  for  the  history  of  the  hour  reveals 
it  in  a  flood  of  light.  What  is  responsible  for  the  present 
state  of  Russia?  The  unnatural  condition  of  her  laws. 
Her  rulers,  glutted  with  an  autocratic  power,  made  the  laws 
subservient  to  their  private  interests,  partial  to  their  favor- 
ites, and  unfair  and  adverse  to  the  common  people.  The 
laws  of  Nature  were  set  at  nought.  The  Czar,  as  Ajax,  de- 
fied the  lightning,  and  it  struck,  struck  with  fearful  precision 
and  resulting  havoc,  and  the  tempest  of  rebellion  swept 
across  the  land.  Throne  and  palace  crumbled  in  its  path, 
and  the  hut  of  the  hitherto  oppressed  and  despised  peasant 
became  the  seat  of  power.  But  alas!  and  this  is  the  sad  part, 
the  masses  rising  in  their  might,  have  been  as  false  to  the 
laws  of  Nature  as  the  ruler  whom  they  dethroned;  and  glutted 
in  turn  with  power,  have  fallen  into  equal  if  not  worse  ex- 
cesses. Nature's  pendulum  of  justice  and  of  fairness  is  not 
allowed  to  oscillate  in  obedience  to  its  laws,  and  drawn  too 
much  to  one  side  by  ignorance,  and  rapacity,  and  thirst  for 
revenge,  it  has  swung  violently  to  the  other  side  into  the 
bands  of  those  who,  led  astray  by  idealistic,  unpractical  and 

[4] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

unnatural  principles,  can  never  work  out  the  peace  and  hap- 
piness of  humanity.  By  its  fair  and  even  and  well-balanced 
motion  instituted  by  Nature,  its  regulator,  the  pendulum  of 
justice,  should  swing  impartially  between  ruler  and  ruled, 
marking  out  for  each  the  blessings  of  our  common  existence; 
but  violently  drawn  to  either  side  in  defiance  of  its  laws, 
both  must  ultimately  suffer  in  the  inevitable  reaction.  But 
human  authority  is  ever  greedy  and  history  repeats  itself. 

Nature  is  unselfish  and  loves  to  give  of  her  abundance. 
Man  too  often  is  selfish  and  chnging  tenaciously  to  what  he 
has,  strives  to  grab  from  others.  Selfishness  is  the  root  of 
most  of  the  faults  of  mankind  individually  and  collectively. 
Overlooking  the  golden  mean,  men  usually  sin  against  dis- 
cretion and  lose  that  for  which  they  are  striving  as  well  as 
that  which  they  already  have.  Ajax  was  not  satisfied  with 
the  arms  with  which  he  defied  the  lightning.  He  wanted 
those  of  Achilles,  and  when  they  were  given  to  Ulysses,  he 
lost  his  mind  completely;  and  imagining  that  the  flocks  that 
supplied  food  to  the  camps  were  the  Grecian  princes,  his 
imaginary  enemies,  he  laid  about  him  with  the  sword  that  bid 
defiance  to  the  lightning  and  slaughtered  the  innocent  victims. 

Our  country  has  been  divided  between  the  "Wets"  and 
*'Drys."  It  has  not  been  a  fair  division  of  our  people,  for 
multitudes  who  are  not  "Drys"  have  had  no  sympathy  with 
the  excesses  of  the  "Wets."  Still,  had  the  "Wets"  been  con- 
tent to  abandon  strong  drink,  they  might  easily  have  ob- 
tained a  compromise  with  the  "Drys,"  and  eliminating  the 
saloon  evil,  have  saved  light  wines  and  beer.  Being  selfish 
and  unwilling  to  cede  anything,  they  lost  all.  But  the 
"Drys,"  equally  unreasonable,  have  abused  their  victory  by 

[5] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

drastic  enactments  that  have  fostered  needless  discontent. 
Ajax  went  mad  on  account  of  defeat;  the  "Drys"  went  mad 
on  account  of  success,  and  imagining  every  moderate  user 
to  be  in  league  with  their  enemies,  they  have  laid  about  them 
with  the  sword  of  the  law,  fancying  that  they  were  serving 
justice  in  this  wholesale  slaughter.  The  "Flu"  victim  may 
die  for  want  of  a  needed  stimulant.  WTiat  is  that  to  them? 
"More,"  they  tell  us  coldly,  "died  from  drink."  And  are 
not  others  still  dying  from  drink  .^  And  will  not  others  still 
die  from  substitutes  that  are  worse  than  drink?  But  again, 
what  is  it  to  the  extreme  "Drys,"  provided  that  they  can 
slay  in  their  madness?  Nature  stands  for  moderation. 
Excess  on  either  side  is  baleful.  Virtue  and  Nature  tread 
the  middle  path. 

Capital,  too,  has  been  selfish  and  ridden  rough-shod  over 
the  rights  of  Labor.  It  violated  Nature's  law  and  lost  much 
of  what  it  formerly  possessed.  In  recent  years  it  has  been 
brought  to  a  consciousness  of  its  error  and  has  shown  an  in- 
clination to  meet  Labor  half  way.  At  present  the  wage 
earners  are  receiving  more,  buying  more,  and  for  all  that, 
complaining  more.  The  sale  of  non-essentials  is  limited 
only  by  manufacturing  capacity  and  is  no  longer  restricted 
to  the  wealthy.  Capital,  on  the  other  hand,  is  yielding  a 
smaller  and  smaller  revenue  on  investment.  The  bond- 
holders' four  per  cent  income  has  shrunk  in  purchasing  ca- 
pacity to  two  per  cent,  and  is  still  further  diminished  by  the 
large  portion  that  must  be  paid  the  Government  in  the  form 
of  taxes. 

So  the  pendulum  is  swinging — swinging — not  in  justice 
and  fairness,  but  too  much  on  the  side  of  Labor;  yet  Labor 

[6] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

is  over-greedy  and  demanding  more  and  more.  It  is  nothing 
to  the  raihoad  employees  that  the  roads  are  operated  at  a 
loss — that  the  burden  of  expense  is  more  than  traffic  can  bear. 
Their  demands  become  only  more  exorbitant  and  insistent. 
What  is  it  to  them?  *  The  public  must  traffic,"  so  they  rea- 
son, "let  the  public  pay."  Have  they,  therefore,  ceased  to 
be  part  of  the  public  and  become  a  privileged  class  to  which 
the  public  interests  must  be  totally  subordinated.^  Discre- 
tion should  teach  them  that  when  more  water  is  drawn  from 
a  well  than  is  made  up  by  the  inflow,  the  well  goes  dry ;  and 
that  the  chief  sufferers  are  those  who  are  dependent  on  its 
waters.  No  man  ploughs  and  sows  and  harrows  his  field 
that  his  neighbors,  and  the  passers-by,  and  the  farm  help 
may  reap  the  crop  and  leave  him  the  expense  account  and 
the  stubble.  Labor  would  sneer  at  the  proposal  were  it 
asked  to  do  likewise,  yet  it  insists  that  Capital  be  satisfied 
to  do  so.  Nature  in  her  fairness  dictates  that  those  who 
have  contributed  to  the  result  should  share  proportionately 
in  the  profits.  "We  have  done  it  all,"  Labor  extremists  say, 
"the  whole  profit  is  ours."  They  have  not  done  it  all  and 
they  know  it;  and  those  who  are  loudest  in  their  shouting 
are  those  who  have  done  the  least,  for  they  are  salaried 
officials  who  never  put  their  hand  to  labor.  Discretion, 
were  it  listened  to,  would  make  Labor  standardize  the  great 
gains  already  made.  Collective  bargaining  would  be  a  fair 
compromise,  were  collective  bargaining  not  to  degenerate 
into  collective  dictating.  The  aristocracy  of  caste  is  re- 
pugnant to  democratic  ideals,  and  hence  the  aristocracy  of 
unions  is  repugnant  to  democracy  and  Nature.  Labor 
unions  would  corner  Labor  in  the  interest  of  their  members, 

[7] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

and  those  who  will  not  join  them  or  whom  they  exclude  from 
membership,  are  denied  the  right  to  live.  They  undermine 
the  very  foundations  of  our  Government  when  they  assail 
the  individual  freedom  of  the  workman;  they  attack  the 
fundamental  law  of  Nature  which  gives  every  man  a  right 
to  use  his  energies  in  the  struggle  for  existence.  If  there  be 
a  corner  in  wheat,  or  cotton,  or  coffee,  or  coal,  or  any  similar 
article.  Union  Labor  is  unstinted  in  its  condemnation.  What 
would  it  say  if  the  corner  were  in  air  and  sunlight.^  Yet 
Labor  is  as  necessary  to  Ufe  as  the  air  we  breathe  and  the 
sunlight  that  vivifies  the  world — what  judgment,  therefore, 
should  we  pass  on  its  corner  in  Labor. 

Germany,  in  the  days  of  her  might,  held  an  enviable 
place  in  the  forefront  of  nations.  By  industry,  and  thrift, 
and  marvelous  organization  she  spread  her  influence  through- 
out the  world.  "Germany  above  all"  was  lisped  in  infancy; 
"Germany  above  all"  was  the  watchword  of  life;  "Germany 
above  all"  was  almost  a  religion ;  to  many,  in  fact,  it  was  so. 
But  she  failed  to  realize  that  she  was  well  off,  and  sought  a 
place  in  the  sun.  Ajax  was  not  fool  enough  for  that,  fool 
though  he  was.  Even  the  fabled  Icarus  was  content  with  a 
lower  flight,  though  even  he  came  to  grief.  The  waxen 
wings  of  selfishness  may  lift  us  from  the  ground,  but  they 
melt  when  we  need  them  most;  and  the  height  to  which  they 
raise  us  is  the  downward  starting  point  of  our  ruin.  Selfish- 
ness impels  us  indiscreetly,  selfishness  dazzles  and  blinds  us, 
and  few  are  they  that  can  discern  what  is  for  their  real  good. 

Nature  indeed  urges  men  to  progress,  and  to  force  them 
onward  she  has  implanted  in  the  human  heart  a  spirit  of  un- 
rest.   But  we  should  not  allow  envy  and  jealousy  to  supplant 

[8] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

Nature  and  pervert  and  misdirect  her  forces.  Nature 
holds  a  fair  and  even  balance,  but  jealousy  and  envy  see 
only  one  arm  of  it,  and  never  stop  to  examine  what  is  offered 
by  the  other.  The  plowboy  whistling  in  the  fields  at  sunrise 
envies  the  soft  bed  and  late  hours  of  his  rich  master;  and  the 
rich  master,  after  a  sleepless  night,  envies  the  health  and  the 
buoyancy  of  heart  of  the  care-free  plowboy.  The  Packard 
owner  is  the  envy  of  the  possessor  of  a  Ford ;  and  the  owner 
of  the  Ford  is,  in  turn,  envied  by  him  that  has  to  walk.  We 
weary  ourselves  with  desires  of  things  beyond  our  reach,  and 
vainly  imagine  that  we  will  be  happy  then  only  when  we 
have  more  than  another.  The  impulse  is  good  but  we  must 
wisely  curb  it.  Like  a  generous  horse  it  will  bear  us  on  our 
way,  but  not  safely  unless  kept  well  in  hand.  Nature  spurs 
the  laggard  but  checks  the  reckless.  Ambition  there  should 
be  in  all  to  acquire  more  than  the  bare  necessaries  of  life. 
Nature  blesses  such  ambition,  for  she  wishes  not  only  the 
existence  but  the  comfortable  existence  of  her  ofiFspring. 
Without  such  incentive  civilization  would  stagnate.  But 
while  the  impulse  to  betterment  is  common,  it  is  not  intended 
in  life  to  have  a  sameness  of  expression.  The  air  in  an  organ 
is  the  same  but  the  pipes  give  forth  a  varying  note,  differing 
in  quaUty  and  pitch,  but  all  attuned  to  blend  into  an  entranc- 
ing harmony.  Some  are  lower,  some  higher,  but  all  are  pro- 
portioned to  the  resultant  unity.  Such  is  Nature's  plan  in 
the  harmony  of  human  activities.  All  men  might  like  to  be 
president,  few  may  be.  Yet  it  would  be  silly  to  abolish  the 
presidential  chair  because  few  may  sit  in  it.  Human  society 
is  an  organic  body.  Not  all  its  members  have  the  same 
function;  nor,  for  mutual  benefit,  is  it  desirable  that  they 

19] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

should  have.  What  would  our  body  be  if  it  were  all  tongue? 
Nature  is  wiser,  and  she  has  made  the  various  parts  different; 
but  so  that  without  envy  or  jealousy  and  in  mutual  co-opera- 
tion, each  shall  contribute  to  the  welfare  of  all.  These  facts 
are  noted  with  the  fleeting  hope  that  their  expression  may 
stir  up  thoughts  tending  to  produce  a  contentment  of  mind 
which  is  satisfied  with  the  reasonable  without  striving  for 
the  unattainable. 

But  do  not  imagine  that  we  are  of  the  class  of  mere  fault- 
finders who  exempt  themselves  from  the  foibles  and  imper- 
fections of  our  race.  We  have  no  sympathy  with  the  self- 
righteous.  We  are  one  of  the  many  and  ready  to  apply  to 
ourselves  what  we  suggest  to  others,  for  it  is  by  self-analysis 
and  criticism  coupled  with  a  willingness  to  accept  criticism 
from  others,  that  Nature  helps  us  on  the  road  to  self-improve- 
ment, and  that  it  is  through  this  philosophy  that  she  would 
perfect  us.  In  every  human  heart  there  is  good;  in  none 
absolute  perfection.  We  are  wary  of  the  Pharisee  with  his 
self-commendation.  He  is  trying  to  sell  his  goods.  "He  is 
not  like  other  men."  Thank  heaven!  We  would  pity  other 
men  if  he  were.  Ajax  bragged  too  much  of  his  deeds  and 
lost  the  arms  of  Achilles.  "Behold,"  he  said,  "the  Trojans 
brought  the  sword,  and  fire,  and  the  power  of  Jove  himself 
against  the  Grecian  fleet;  where  was  the  eloquent  Ulysses 
then?  And  I,  with  my  breast,  defended  your  thousand 
ships,  your  sole  hope  of  return  to  your  country."  (Ovid, 
Metamorphoses,  Bk.  XHI,  91-94.)  A  little  modesty,  Ajax, 
would  have  shown  your  deeds  to  better  advantage. 

Nature  supplies  the  power  but  has  given  us  reason  to 
guide  it.     Without  discretion,  power  is  dangerous  to  its 

1 10  J 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

possessor.  A  judge  remonstrated  with  his  clerk  for  carrying 
a  gun.  The  clerk,  nevertheless,  persisted  in  carrying  it.  In 
court,  one  day,  he  called  a  man  a  liar.  The  latter,  infuriated, 
snatched  a  chair  from  the  floor,  but  the  clerk  drawing  his 
gun,  intimidated  him  and  prevented  the  assault.  Thinking 
it  an  excellent  opportunity  of  justifying  his  conduct  in  going 
armed,  he  said  to  the  judge,  "You  see,  if  I  didn't  have  that 
gun,  he  would  have  brained  me."  "Not  at  all,"  said  the 
judge,  "for  if  you  didn't  have  the  gun  you  would  have  had 
brains  enough  not  to  call  him  a  liar." 

And  as  with  individuals  in  power,  so  is  it  with  parties. 
Had  Germany  not  had  her  guns  ready,  she  would  not  have 
tried  to  force  her  will  on  the  nations,  and  war  would  not 
have  resulted.  But  the  guns  that  bombarded  Paris,  could, 
had  they  reached  the  French  coast,  have  bombarded  London; 
and  the  way  was  clear,  she  thought,  since  only  a  scrap  of 
paper  barred  her  from  the  road  through  Belgium.  So  she 
smiled,  as  she  entered  the  contest,  at  the  surprise  she  was  to 
spring  upon  an  unsuspecting  world.  The  man  or  nation 
armed  for  trouble  is  not  long  in  finding  it.  If  all  nations 
would  disarm,  the  dove  of  peace  would  not  have  to  beat  a 
despairing  wing  above  the  troubled  waters  of  international 
peace. 

Study  as  we  may,  we  shall  never  fully  comprehend  the 
wonders  of  Nature.  "The  mill  will  never  grind  with  the 
waters  that  have  passed,"  sings  the  poet.  "A  moment," 
says  the  scientist,  "the  thought  is  pretty,  but  it  isn't  true. 
The  mill  will  grind  again  and  many,  many  times  with  this 
very  water."  "But  the  law  of  Nature  bears  it  away  to  the 
distant  sea,"  you  say.    True,  but  the  laws  of  Nature  will 

[111 


Afax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

bear  it  back  infallibly  again.  The  sun  will  pick  it  up  and 
shape  it  into  clouds,  and  the  wind  will  bear  the  clouds  upon 
its  bosom,  and  the  air  will  be  saturated,  and  the  vapor  will 
condense  into  rain,  and  the  hills  and  woods  will  receive  it 
and  restore  it  to  the  stream,  and  the  stream  will  sing  on  its 
way,  and  the  mill  will  grind  again.  It  is  a  problem  of  per- 
petual motion  solved  under  our  very  eyes,  but  so  common 
that  we  give  it  little  thought.  There  is  no  chance  in  the 
matter.  It  is  the  result  of  clear  and  unvarying  laws,  indi- 
cating the  directive  intelligence  behind  it  all.  And  there  is, 
moreover,  law,  beneficent  law,  even  where  there  seems  a 
deviation. 

Take  the  phenomenon  of  expansion  and  contraction. 
The  general  law  is  that  things  expand  with  the  heat  and 
contract  with  the  cold.  Water  follows  this  general  law^  and 
expands  with  heat  and  contracts  with  cold,  contracts — but 
behold  the  wisdom  of  provident  Nature.  The  freezing  point 
is  approached.  The  procedure  is  suddenly  reversed.  Ice 
is  formed  and  in  its  condensation  we  would  have  expected 
that  it  would  be  heavier  than  water.  The  reverse,  however, 
is  the  case.  Ice  is  lighter  than  water  at  the  freezing  point, 
and  the  design  and  wisdom  of  Nature  is  apparent.  Were 
ice  heavier  than  water,  all  aquatic  hfe  would  be  destroyed; 
for  the  ice  as  formed  would  sink  to  the  bottom  instead  of 
floating,  and  each  layer  building  up  a  solid  structure  of  ice 
would  cause  the  whole  to  congeal;  whereas  now  it  forms  a 
protection  against  the  external  cold  and  the  fishes  swim  in 
their  element  protected  by  a  barrier  of  ice.  And  Natm^e, 
by  a  device  equally  simple  and  wise  has  preserved  for  her 
children  the  use  of  immense  tracts  of  ocean.     Moving  water 

[12] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

freezes  less  readily  than  water  at  rest,  and  salt  dissolved  in 
water  lowers  the  freezing  point;  hence  the  ocean,  over  the 
greater  part  of  its  extent,  remains  open  always  and  air-breath- 
ing sea  mammals  are  preserved  and  thrive. 

Nature  has  many  detractors.  Who  is  there  that  hasn't? 
She  is  a  hard  mistress,  we  are  told,  and  imposes  much  sick- 
ness and  suffering  on  her  children.  Have  these  complainers 
ever  entered  into  themselves  and  asked  how  they  have  kept 
her  laws?  No,  she  is  not  a  weak  mother,  we  admit,  for  she 
has  too  many  vital  interests  at  stake.  A  child  soon  learns 
that  it  must  not  put  its  finger  on  a  hot  stove.  Fire  destroys 
the  hving  tissue  and  the  sense  of  pain  is  an  efficient  warning. 
If  grown-up  children  continue  figuratively  to  place  their 
fingers  on  hot  stoves,  in  spite  of  Nature's  warning,  they 
must  expect  to  burn  their  fingers.  The  penalty  may  not 
always  be  apparent,  but  it  is  always  there.  Nature  is  a 
patient  mother  and  the  child  that  offends  in  secret,  is  in 
secret  punished.  Culpable  selfishness  begets  greed,  and 
greed  feeds  on  prudence  and  wisdom.  Over-indulgence 
weakens  the  faculties  abused  and  renders  them  less  fitted 
for  lawful  pleasure.  Reasonable  self-love  is  not  selfishness. 
Selfishness  is  the  culpable  excess.  Self-love  is  necessary  to 
Nature's  children  in  her  law  of  the  Struggle  for  Existence 
and  Survival  of  the  Fittest.  She  has  given  man  inteUigence 
to  curb  selfishness.  InteUigence  bids  man  not  to  be  over- 
vain,  egotistical  and  wrapped  up  solely  in  self.  Failure  to 
utifize  properly  the  inteUigence  bestowed  on  us,  together 
with  the  wide-spread  self-delusion  that  we  are  smart  enough 
to  cheat  Nature,  cause  the  greater  part  of  life's  troubles. 
No  one  would  be  fooHsh  enough  to  steal,  were  he  certain  of 

[131 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

being  caught  and  punished;  yet  many  sin  against  Nature, 
when  intelligence  tells  them,  or  would  tell  them  if  they  would 
but  listen,  that  there  is  no  possible  escape  from  detection 
and  from  certain  punishment.  If  you  offend,  then  blame 
yourself  that  the  mistress  is  hard  and  the  judge  severe,  from 
whose  decision  there  is  no  appeal.  The  fault  is  yours. 
Why  offend i^  You  thought  yourself  too  clever.  You 
imagined  that  you  could  break  the  law  and  escape.  You 
should  have  known  that  you  cannot  violate  the  most  insig- 
nificant of  Nature's  laws  and  escape  the  inevitable  punish- 
ment. "You  can  fool  all  of  the  people  some  of  the  time," 
said  Lincoln,  "and  some  of  the  people  all  of  the  time;  but 
you  cannot  fool  all  of  the  people  all  of  the  time."  Nature  is 
more  vigilant  than  the  people;  you  can  never  fool  her. 

Do  you  wonder  why  little  children  and  those  who  by 
lack  of  intelligence  are  incapable  of  personal  responsibility, 
are,  nevertheless,  subjected  to  suffering,  the  result  of  the 
breaking  of  these  laws  unknowingly?  The  responsibility  is 
on  parents  and  others.  It  is  a  double  safeguard  of  Nature 
thrown  around  her  laws.  Our  own  personal  interests  might 
not  be  strong  enough  to  restrain  us;  Nature  would  influence 
us  through  the  love  of  those  who  must  suffer  with  us.  The 
fate  of  a  wife  or  child  is  often  dearer  to  us  than  our  own. 
We  wiU  hesitate  twice  before  breaking  the  law,  if  they,  too, 
must  suffer  for  our  misdeeds.  Moreover,  even  if  these  suf- 
ferings be  not  penalty,  what  beautiful  traits  of  character  do 
they  not  develop.  The  hunger  of  the  infant  stirs  up  all  the 
love  and  solicitude  of  the  mother.  Pity,  sympathy,  confi- 
dence, generosity,  and  a  host  of  the  sweeter  and  tenderer 
affections  of  our  nature,  draw  their  bloom  and  fragrance 

[14] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

from  the  root  of  suffering.  In  prosperity,  in  affluence,  in 
our  health  and  strength,  we  are  prone  to  self-sufficiency,  and 
the  ties  that  should  bind  us  to  our  fellow  mortals  shrink  and 
shrivel  because  neglected;  but  a  mother's  loving  hand  upon 
our  fevered  brow,  the  word  of  a  friend  revealing  the  depth 
of  his  sympathy  in  our  sorrow;  help  given  when  recompense 
and  self-interest  have  no  part  in  the  bounty;  are  gifts  of 
Nature  more  precious  than  those  that  glitter. 

But  to  return  from  our  digression:  We  insist  forcibly 
and  earnestly  that  the  breaking  of  Nature's  laws  or  the  at- 
tempting to  evade  them  is  at  the  bottom  of  the  misfortunes 
that  have  befallen  mankind. 

Shakespeare  wisely  says:  "There  is  a  tide  in  the  affairs 
of  men  which,  taken  at  the  flood,  leads  on  to  fortune ;  omitted, 
all  the  voyage  of  their  life  is  bound  in  shallows  and  in  mis- 
eries. On  such  a  full  sea  are  we  now  afloat,  and  we  must 
take  the  current  when  it  serves."  We  must  take  the  ciu*- 
rent  lest,  when  the  tide  turns,  we  be  caught  in  the  ebb.  We 
must  keep  on  the  crest  of  the  tide,  that  our  vessel  be  not 
stranded  and  topple  over  in  the  mud,  or  be  wedged  in  by 
the  drifting  sands.  A  man  does  a  great  deed,  and  floats  on 
the  waves  of  popular  applause;  he  must  be  careful  of  the 
shifting  wind  and  tide,  lest  he  drift  into  the  shallows. 
Heedlessness  of  Nature's  laws  invites  destruction.  Be  he 
over-selfish  or  over-ambitious  he  will  take  too  many  risks 
and  skirt  a  treacherous  shore.  If  truly  great,  he  will  keep 
his  mental  balance  and  give  his  ship  due  leaway. 

Napoleon  met  his  Waterloo,  and  most  men  who  at  the 
flood-time  of  their  fortunes  have  been  lauded  to  the  skies, 
have  met  a  similar  fate.    The  exceptions  to  the  rule  are 

[15] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning, 

chiefly  those  who,  like  Lincoln,  passed  away  before  the  ebb 
set  in.  Admiral  Dewey  upon  his  return  from  Manila  Bay 
was  honored  as  few  of  our  countrymen  have  ever  been.  A 
grateful  people  presented  him  with  a  home.  Great  in  war, 
his  popularity  sufl'ered  shipwreck  in  peace.  The  gift  was 
made  Avithout  conditions,  indeed,  but  owing  to  its  personal 
nature,  deUcacy  dictated  that  he  keep  it  in  his  name.  The 
gift  was  to  him.  His  popularity  vanished  when  he  trans- 
ferred it  to  his  wife.  He  died  of  a  broken  heart.  Fortunate 
is  the  man  who  does  not  place  his  supreme  happiness  in 
fame.  A  bevy  of  gushing  maidens  was  the  undoing  of  Hob- 
son,  "The  Hero  of  the  Merrimac."  He  could  navigate  a 
narrow  channel  but  not  when  sirens  hned  the  shores.  "Hob- 
son's  choice"  was  "Thumbs  down"  for  Hobson.  Roosevelt, 
though  he  will  live  in  history  as  a  great  American,  struck  a 
reef  when  he  started  the  "Progressive  Party."  He  will  live 
in  history  because  in  spite  of  mistakes  he  was  truly  great; 
and  he  was  truly  great  because  he  lived  so  close  to  Nature. 
The  great  and  fearless  naturally  make  many  enemies.  We 
say  naturally,  but  it  would  be  more  exact  to  say  unnaturally, 
for  envy  and  jealousy  of  greatness  are  not  the  effect  of  any 
of  the  laws  of  Nature,  but  are  the  effect  of  the  violation  of 
her  laws.  Nature  is  broad  in  her  sympathies.  The  envious 
and  jealous  are  narrow.  Others  soar  above  them,  and  they 
are  unable  or  too  lazy  to  follow.  They  would  chp  the  pin- 
ions of  the  eagle  to  keep  him  on  the  plane  of  the  mud-hen. 
But  to  be  true  to  Nature,  the  great  and  fearless  must,  on 
their  part,  preserve  due  mental  balance.  Greatness  in  it- 
self receives  fruition  in  its  acknowledgment  by  the  people. 
Fictitious  greatness  may  hold  the  popular  fancy  for  a  time,  but 

[16] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

the  gilding  inevitably  wears  off  and  displays  the  baser  metal 
beneath.  Nature  is  the  enemy  of  shame.  But  popular  fancy 
and  public  approval  at  their  best  are  fickle.  Trivial  things  will 
win  them ;  trivial  things  destroy.  Washington  is  better  known 
by  the  episode  of  the  cherry  tree  than  by  his  war-craft  or 
statesmanship.  It  is  unfortunate  that  the  little  hatchet 
should  symbolize  the  "Father  of  our  Country"  rather  than 
some  other  symbol  more  worthy  of  the  great  truth-teller. 
Had  Wilson  cast  his  anchor  at  the  height  of  his  tide  on 
November  11,  1918,  he  would  have  gone  down  in  history  as 
a  peer  among  men.  But  extravagant  idealism  drove  his 
bark  upon  the  rocks.  He  was  easily  the  first  and  foremost 
man  of  the  New  World,  but,  like  Alexander,  he  looked  for 
more  worlds  to  conquer  and  turned  his  eyes  yearningly  to 
the  Old.  He  forgot  that  Europe  was  the  graveyard  of  repu- 
tations and  fancied  that,  like  Caesar,  he  had  only  to  appear 
on  the  scene  and  write  for  posterity,  "I  came,  I  saw,  I  con- 
quered." He  could  not  realize  that  Caesar's  task  was 
child's  play  to  his.  He  had  lived  in  the  clouds  and  thought 
that  he  could  lift  Europe  weighted  with  its  traditions,  its 
prejudices,  its  diplomacy,  to  the  airy  heights  of  his  favorite 
abode.  The  reception  given  him  was  enough  to  turn  any 
man's  head.  He  bore  his  own  personality  but  he  was  more 
than  Wilson;  he  was  the  representative  of  the  American 
people.  He  was  two  in  one,  and  he  should  ever  have  kept 
clearly  before  his  mind  the  real  distinction  that  existed  be- 
tween the  two.  It  was  not  Wilson  that  was  feted.  It  was 
the  American  people.  The  hand  of  royalty  clasped  the 
hand  of  republicanism.  At  least  so  it  should  have  done. 
It  is  unfortunate  that  it  found  only  the  hand  of  Wilson.     He 

[17] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

thought  that  he  was  to  be  the  new  savior  of  humanity, 
when  Nature  intended,  if  indeed  it  so  intended,  that  it  should 
be  America.  He  was  the  prophet  of  high  American  ideals; 
but  the  prophet  is  only  the  mouthpiece,  not  the  source  of 
inspiration.  He  confounded  the  two  and  fell.  He  had 
reached  the  topmost  rung  of  the  ladder  of  fame,  and,  losing 
his  balance,  as  the  winds  of  national  contentions  swept 
around  him,  and  the  currents  of  secret  intrigue  and  agree- 
ments shocked  him,  he  had  but  one  way  to  go  and  that  was 
downward.  On  the  way  up  the  ladder  of  fame,  the  man 
striving  may  have  many  hands  to  help  him;  on  the  way 
down  the  number  is  doubled,  and  a  lot  of  others  would  gladly 
help  the  descent,  could  they  only  get  near  enough  to  be  of 
assistance.  Alas  that  the  period  of  only  a  few  short  months 
should  separate  the  top  of  fame's  ladder  from  the  mud  at 
its  foot!  Had  he  alone  suffered,  it  would  not  be  so  bad. 
But  Wilson  as  Wilson,  and  Wilson  as  America's  president, 
were  unfortunately  coupled  together,  and,  as  one  fell  he 
dragged  the  other  with  him.  Nature  requires  the  ballast  of 
discretion  to  give  poise  to  her  other  gifts,  and  nowhere  is  it 
needed  more  and  more  rarely  found  than  on  the  giddy 
heights  of  fame.     Ajax  lacked  it  and  all  the  race  of  Ajax. 

We  have  jotted  down  these  thoughts  on  the  laws  of  Na- 
ture, their  observance,  their  benefits,  their  violations  and 
sanctions,  without  much  attention  to  logical  order  or  se- 
quence. For  we  think  that  Ali  Baba  was  happier  in  his 
cave  with  his  treasures  scattered  about  him  than  if  he  lived 
in  a  museum  with  every  article  tagged  and  in  perfect  order ; 
and  so  we  are  happier  with  our  thoughts,  taking  now  this, 
now  that — at  random — and  offering  it  to  our  friends,  content 

fl8] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

if  it  have  some  value  in  itself,  or  even  if  it  be  deemed  by 
them  to  have  some  out  of  kind  consideration. 

We  shall  now  proceed  to  consider  some  details  of  our 
legislation  which  do  not  seem  to  us  conformable  to  the  jus- 
tice of  natural  law. 

It  is  a  regrettable  fact,  but  one,  nevertheless,  of  daily 
experience,  that  when  people  go  jazzing  and  jazzing  around 
and  tread  on  the  corns  of  others,  there  is  only  a  playful 
smile  on  the  faces  of  the  indifferent,  or  a  rude  guffaw  from 
those  who  like  to  see  others  suffer.  The  jazzers  must  touch 
their  own  corns  before  connection  is  made  with  their  intel- 
lect. The  Government  needed  revenue  and  Congress  started 
jazzing.  Congressmen  are  always  happy  to  jazz,  except 
when  the  salaries  of  Congressmen,  or  franking  privileges,  or 
mileage,  or  similar  important  national  interests  are  con- 
cerned; on  which  occasions  a  balking  mule  could  in  a  race 
give  them  a  generous  handicap  and  win  hands  down.  And 
so  in  matter  of  taxes;  for  as  they  did  not  have  to  pay  the 
piper  they  jazzed  with  gusto  and  trod  heavily  on  many  a 
com.  But,  after  all,  the  corns  were  only  those  of  the  very 
wealthy.  Those  whose  corns  had  escaped  smiled  blandly ;  *'We 
would  gladly  pay  the  tax,"  they  said,  "if  we  had  the  income." 
But  the  jazzer  inevitably  goes  faster,  and  naturally  becomes 
more  careless  of  his  feet,  and  so  the  law,  taxing  incomes, 
touched  many  another  com,  and  the  smilers  no  longer  smiled, 
for  smiles  and  smarting  corns  are  not  on  speaking  terms,  and  a 
great  cry  went  up,  "Unfair!    Vicious!  Confiscatory!" 

The  fundamental  principle  of  our  Constitution  is  equal 
rights  for  all.  It  is  the  principle  of  Nature.  On  this  foun- 
dation we  have  reared  the  greatest  nation  upon  earth.     It 

[19] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

is  broad  and  solid  and  of  prime  material.  But  man  may 
spoil  the  best  of  Nature's  works.  Discriminating  laws  have 
been  passed,  others  will  follow.  The  wedge  has  been  driven 
in;  it  is  there  for  other  blows  to  drive  it  deeper.  Discrimin- 
ating legislation  is  class  legislation.  Discriminating  legis- 
lation is  the  legal  separation  of  the  common  mass  into  dis- 
tinct bodies,  with  separate  and  distinct  interests,  and  severs 
where  it  should  unite.  It  aggravates  and  renders  acute  the 
disease  it  pretends  to  cure,  and  is  a  most  serious  set-back 
on  the  road  to  progress.  Great  Britain  makes  one  set  of 
laws  for  the  EngUsh;  another  for  the  Irish.  The  union  is 
a  union  of  physical  force  in  favor  of  the  stronger.  Impar- 
tiahty  begets  peace  and  contentment;  partiaUty,  unrest  and 
rebellion.  We  have  said  that  the  law  of  Nature  is  opposed 
to  exemptions.  No  law,  therefore,  that  is  based  on  par- 
tiahty  can  be  fair.  Privilege  is  the  state  of  being  set  or  the 
act  of  setting  self  above  the  law.  How  can  others  be  ex- 
pected to  be  content  under  the  law.J^  Such  principle,  or 
lack  of  principle,  foments  jealousy  and  stirs  up  conflict. 
Under  our  Government,  everyone  should  contribute  to  its 
expenses  in  proportion  to  the  benefits  he  reaps.  This  is 
the  principle  of  natural  fairness  in  taxation.  He  who  is 
benefited  more  should  pay  more;  he  who  is  benefited  less 
should  be  taxed  less.  This  is  Nature's  way  of  taking  toll 
and  man  should  imitate  it.  Does  Smith  care  how  the  Gov- 
ernment spends  Jones'  money  if  Smith  goes  Scott-free.^  If 
wasted,  the  waste  has  cost  him  nothing;  if  poorly  spent,  he 
reaps  gratis  some  profit  at  least.  Having  contributed  noth- 
ing, he  would  be  considered  impudent  were  he  to  insist  on 
regulating  its  use.     But  if  Smith  contributes  proportionally 

[20] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

to  the  expense,  even  if  the  amount  be  small,  he  has  done 
his  part  fully,  and  has  a  right  to  exact  and  a  personal  inter- 
est in  exacting  the  full  return  in  benefits,  of  what  he  has 
given.  But  the  Congressional  viewpoint  is  different.  It  is 
not  fairness,  it  is  votes.  There  are  hundreds  of  Smiths  to 
every  Jones.  The  voting  power  of  the  Smiths  must  be  con- 
ciliated and  won;  and  the  Jones  family  will  be  allowed  to 
pay  for  all.  So  the  Jones  family  is  duly  taxed.  The  Joneses 
pay;  the  Smiths  vote;  and  Congress  divides  the  melon  among 
its  favorites.  All  are  satisfied  except  the  Jones  minority, 
and,  being  a  minority,  may  be  overlooked.  Where  fairness 
has  lost  sway,  minorities  have  no  rights.  They  are  safely 
tucked  away  in  the  non-payers'  pockets. 

A  doctor,  who,  when  he  is  in  the  same  condition  as  his 
patient,  balks  at  his  own  medicine  and  fights  tooth  and  nail 
to  avoid  taking  it,  shows  how  he  values  it  in  his  heart  of 
hearts.  The  convention  of  doctors  in  Congress  rose  in  open 
rebelHon  when  they  were  asked  to  take  their  dose  of  Income 
Tax  patent  medicine.  The  bottle  had  been  labeled  "The 
pure  essence  of  honey;  good  for  all  diseases  and  some  others; 
so  pleasant  to  the  taste  that  the  hardest  heart  would  be 
pained  at  having  to  refuse  the  patient  in  his  pleadings  for 
more."  But  suddenly  the  same  bottle  filled  with  the  same 
ingredients  is  held  up  in  Congress,  but  its  label  has  been 
changed.  Its  chief  ornaments  are  the  skull  and  cross-bones, 
and  the  label  has  been  simplified  into  "Fatal  to  Congress- 
men, no  matter  how  small  the  dose.  Poison!  Beware!" 
The  thing  just  couldn't  be  done.  The  salaries  assured  them 
would  be  virtually  reduced.  The  salaries  of  the  people 
could  be  reduced  all  right,  for  the  benefit  of  the  people;  but 

[21] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

the  salaries  of  the  servants  of  the  people  must  remain  in- 
tact, for  the  benefit  of  themselves.  They,  surely,  were 
those  who  were  drawing  least  benefits  from  the  Govern- 
ment and  why  should  they  be  taxed?  As  if  sauce  for  the 
goose  were  not  sauce  for  the  gander.  It  was  unfair,  so  ar- 
gued Congressmen,  for  the  Government  to  assure  them  a 
salary  and  then  deduct  a  part;  but  it  wasn't  unfair  for  the 
Government  to  assure  the  people  four  per  cent  on  Liberty 
Bonds  and  then  take  back  a  portion  of  the  interest  in  In- 
come Tax.     Congressional  consistency,  thy  name  is  mud! 

The  first  Income  Tax  law  granted  a  three  thousand  dol- 
lar exemption  for  each  unmarried  man  and  woman;  but 
allowed  a  married  couple  only  two  thousand  apiece. 
Was  it  the  purpose  of  Congress  to  discourage  marriage? 
Or  was  it  a  simple  problem  of  Congressional  arithmetic 
that,  as  two  now  made  one  it  had  really  increased  the  al- 
lowance instead  of  diminishing  it? 

But  in  the  Inheritance  Tax  there  are  other  things  against 
Nature's  fairness.  A  man  spends  his  life  and  energy  in 
building  up  a  business.  He  has  been  industrious  and  sav- 
ing, and  has  acquired  a  fortune  which  is  still  bound  up  in 
the  business.  He  has  children  and  Nature  imposes  on  him 
the  duty  not  merely  of  rearing  them  in  the  present,  but  of 
providing  for  them  in  the  future.  Could  he  live  here  for- 
ever, future  provision,  perhaps,  would  be  less  needed.  But 
Nature's  law  is  inexorable  and  he  must  obey  it.  The  chil- 
dren must  one  day  play  their  own  part  in  the  struggle  for 
existence;  and  he  who  brought  them  into  life  must,  in  duty, 
so  far  as  in  him  lies,  help  them  on  to  success.  In  this  he  is 
but  working  with  Nature  and  obeying  her  law.    The  squirrel 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

is  urged  by  Nature  to  work  industriously  to  lay  up  a 
winter's  supply  of  food,  that  he  may  carry  his  family  safely 
over  the  period  where  existence  has  so  many  odds  against 
it.  Because  the  parent  squirrel  passes  away,  there  is  no 
reason  in  the  world  why  his  young  should  give  up  a  portion 
of  what  he  has  accumulated  for  them.  Nor  is  there  more 
reason  in  humankind.  Nay,  there  is  often  far  less,  since 
the  offspring  of  man  is  less  fitted,  at  certain  ages,  to  provide 
for  itself  than  the  young  squirrel  is.  Yet  when  a  successful 
provider  for  his  family  dies,  the  Government  steps  in  and 
demands  a  part  of  the  store  laid  up,  a  large  part  if  the  busi- 
ness be  considerable;  and  demands  it  even  to  the  extent  of 
loss  of  control  of  the  business,  on  which  the  well-being  of 
the  family  depends.  And  this  is  the  more  unfair,  seeing 
that  the  business  has,  year  by  year,  been  taxed  heavily  on 
its  income,  and  the  residue  left  the  owner  to  bequeath  to 
his  family,  was  considered  only  his  due.  And  the  business 
will  still  go  on  being  taxed  despite  the  fact  that  the  Govern- 
ment has  claimed  and  received  its  legacy.  But  it  is  again 
the  case  of  Smith  claiming  Jones'  money.  What  does  Smith 
care?  And  yet  the  Government,  if  true  to  Nature,  should 
care;  for  the  tax  discourages  thrift  and  encourages  the 
spendthrift.  But  as  Congress  is  notably  a  spendthrift  we 
have  not  far  to  seek  the  inspiration  of  the  law.  Subversive, 
nevertheless,  it  is  of  the  law  of  Nature.  Ajax  looks  only 
to  himself  in  the  division  of  the  spoil. 

Reasonable  self-love  is  Nature's  law,  and  reasonable 
self-love  dictates  self-preservation,  and  self-preservation 
includes  the  preservation  of  wife  and  children,  for  they  are 
our    second    selves.      This    self-preservation    makes   tax- 

[23] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

slackers  of  us  all,  especially  when  the  taxing  power  pursues 
us  as  if  we  were  its  prey.  Everyone,  therefore,  clamors  for 
exemption.  Take  the  other  fellow  and  spare  me  and  mine. 
Yet  for  everyone  exempted,  someone  else  must  pay.  The 
total  sum  demanded  is  in  no  way  diminished  on  account 
of  exemptions.  All  that  results  is  that  a  larger  share  is 
demanded  of  those  who  bear  the  burden.  Exemptions  do 
not  solve  the  tax  problem,  for  nothing  is  really  solved  until 
it  is  solved  right.  The  masses  would  be  exempt  from  taxes. 
They  would  therefore  be  the  objects  of  the  munificence  of 
the  rich.  The  Stars  and  Stripes  would  wave  above  them  by 
the  grace  of  the  few.  Selfishness  raises  a  barrier  around 
each  of  us  and  few  can  see  beyond  it.  Are  our  people  blind 
to  danger?  Have  they  never  read  how  the  Roman  Republic 
fell?  The  Roman  people  looked  to  the  Government  for 
largesses.  "Rread  and  the  Circus"  became  their  cry:  a 
life  without  toil,  a  life  of  amusement.  It  is  attractive  but 
it  is  not  the  law  of  Nature.  And  the  Romans  who  had  loved 
their  liberty  for  centuries  as  well  as  we  love  ours,  became 
slaves,  and  a  Nero  and  a  Caligula  reigned  over  them.  Had 
this  been  foretold  to  Rrutus,  or  Cincinnatus,  or  any  of  the 
sturdy  patriots  of  earlier  years,  they  would  have  hooted  the 
prophet  as  a  madman.  Yet  we  are  reciting  history.  Rome 
fell.  Nature's  laws  of  labor,  and  personal  exertion  and 
sacrifice,  was  violated  and  the  stagnant  pool  became  busy 
with  its  deadly  miasmata.  The  Roman  Government  had 
to  supply  the  needed  money.  It  began  by  plundering  the 
provinces.  It  ended  by  the  plunder  and  conscription  of 
its  wealthy  citizens.  It  had  to  supply  the  masses  with 
"Bread  and  the  Circus,"  and  Government  and  people  went 

[24] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

down  in  a  common  ruin.  The  American  Republic  has  no 
provinces  to  plunder.  It  has  therefore  begun  on  its  wealthy 
citizens.  We  are  madmen,  we  will  be  told,  to  cry  disaster. 
But  he  who  will  hsten  no  longer  hears  the  cry  of  confisca- 
tion muttered  in  secret  among  the  few,  he  will  hear  it  openly 
advocated  by  many,  and  the  cry  is  swelling.  The  Govern- 
ment has  led  the  way. 

The  Luxury  Tax  is  not  opposed  to  the  law  of  Nature. 
The  vine  that  is  wisely  pruned  and  the  fruit-tree  lopped, 
give  better  fruit  and  a  more  abundant  yield.  Nature  is 
aided,  not  thwarted.  Both  vine  and  tree  are  healthier 
when  the  super-abundant  is  trimmed;  and  Roman  inde- 
pendence flourished  while  its  sumptuary  laws  were  wisely 
enforced.  But  tree  and  vine  must  be  carefully  handled. 
It  is  not  sufficient  to  take  pruning-hook,  and  shears,  and 
saw,  and  hatchet,  and  cut  and  hack  away  at  random.  The 
superfluous  will  surely  go,  but  tree  and  vine  will  have  lost 
not  only  their  symmetry  and  beauty,  but  their  fruitfulness 
and  vitality  as  weU.  Nature's  law  does  not  limit  life  to  its 
bare  necessities.  It  encourages  reasonable  comforts.  But 
our  Government  has  gone  out  into  our  lives  and  hacked  at 
everything;  and  then  it  opens  its  eyes  in  wonder  at  the  popu- 
lar discontent  that  is  spreading.  Instead  of  wisely  cor- 
recting the  evil  by  a  proper  use  of  brains,  it  foolishly  centers 
its  hopes  in  the  strong  arm  of  repression. 

The  masses  clap  their  hands  and  throw  up  their  caps  in  joy 
that  luxuries  are  taxed.  They  fancy  that  the  burden  has  been 
lifted  from  their  own  shoulders.  Has  it  really  been  lifted? 
Let  us  see.  We  have  stated  that  the  law  of  Nature 
is  not  the  law  of  bare  necessities  only,  but  of  reasonable 

[25] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

comforts.  A  nest  of  twigs  would  suffice  a  bird  for  the 
mere  containing  of  its  eggs  and  perhaps  for  the  bringing  up 
of  its  young.  But  the  bird  lines  its  nest  with  wool  or  horse- 
hair. It  would  supply  for  its  tender  brood  warmth  and 
comfort.  Its  work  is  much  more  artistic  and  elegant  than 
the  law  of  bare  necessities  requires:  and  the  same  impulse 
to  comfort  and  more  than  bare  necessities  is  as  firmly  im- 
planted in  the  heart  of  man.  Hence  as  wages  rise,  the 
tendency  to  comfort  waxes  stronger.  The  masses  too 
would  have  comforts  and  luxuries.  But  these  are  taxed, 
and  hence  the  masses  too  must  pay.  To  really  enjoy  ex- 
emption, the  masses  must  be  content  with  conditions  that 
would  not  be  privations  in  primitive  conditions,  but  which 
are  privations  in  those  that  obtain  at  present.  And  lo! 
the  hands  have  ceased  to  clap,  and  the  caps  are  pulled  down 
grumbhngly  about  the  ears,  as  the  luxury  tax  puts  its  greedy 
hand  into  the  pockets  of  labor.  And  let  us  not  forget  that 
luxuries  are  produced  by  the  masses.  The  purely  luxurious 
never  produce  what  they  consume.  Limitations  must 
curb  excess  but  must  stop  there.  We  are  not  opposed, 
therefore,  to  a  sane  luxury  tax,  and  the  man  that  considers 
it  a  nuisance  has  probably  the  same  opinion  of  his  grocery 
bill.  We  are  merely  caUing  attention  to  the  fact  that  the 
playful  practice  of  passing  the  tax  "buck"  usually  ends  in 
having  the  "buck"  returned  to  the  permanent  possession 
of  the  passer.     Be  careful,  Ajax,  Ulysses  will  get  his  turn. 

Nature's  law  postulates  equal  rights  for  all  who  are  in 
equal  conditions.  She  does  not,  however,  make  all  condi- 
tions equal.  The  soil  of  the  bare  and  wind-swept  mountain 
is  not  as  fertile  as  the  rich  loam  of  the  sheltered  valley. 

[26] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

The  pure  and  crystal  waters  of  the  leaping  stream  have  a 
life  and  vigor  and  motive  power  which  are  denied  the  low- 
lying  festering  pool.  Tree  differs  from  tree  and  plant  from 
plant,  in  age,  and  vigor,  and  beauty  and  productiveness, 
even  though  they  belong  to  the  same  species.  No  two 
leaves  even  on  the  same  tree  are  exactly  alike,  though  they 
conform  to  a  general  type.  Diversity  in  sameness  is  Na- 
ture's law  of  harmony  and  beauty;  but  man  would  reverse 
it  and  make  it  sameness  in  diversity.  Nature,  therefore, 
gives  all  an  equal  right  to  engage  in  the  struggle  for  existence, 
and  favors  success  by  the  very  diversity  of  conditions  in 
which  she  places  her  children.  It  seems  a  paradox  that 
were  all  rich,  all  would  be  poor;  yet  such  is  the  fact,  for  in 
such  a  condition  no  one  would  be  inchned  to  perform  the 
less  agreeable  offices  of  life.  This  is  already  apparent  in 
conditions  among  us.  Our  sewers  would  not  be  constructed, 
our  streets  repaired,  our  railroads  built,  were  it  not  for  im- 
ported labor.  Housemaids  are  becoming  an  extinct  species, 
and  cooks — well,  we  have  reached  the  limit.  The  law  of 
Nature  is  labor.  Where  labor  ceases  disintegration  sets  in 
— insensible,  perhaps,  to  the  human  eye,  because  often  slow 
and  patient  in  the  process.  The  paint  on  our  house  loses 
color,  wears  off  ultimately,  the  boards  blacken,  the  nails 
rust  and  the  wind  dislodges  them;  the  small  boy,  more  im- 
patient and  less  long-suffering  than  the  elements,  takes  a 
hand.  Sun  and  air,  wind  and  rain  can  now  take  a  nap  and 
confide  their  interests  to  the  small  boy.  We  would  not 
labor.  Nature  is  never  idle.  It  is  her  law  and  it  cannot 
be  changed.  We  thought  that  we  had  fooled  her  and 
again  she  has  fooled  us. 

[27] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

There  are  two  brothers;  one  will  labor,  is  industrious 
and  thrifty,  a  benefit  and  credit  to  his  family  and  his  fellow 
men.  The  other  is  lazy  and  prodigal,  easy  come,  easy  go,  the 
drone  that  would  feast  on  the  honey  gathered  laboriously  by 
his  busy  kindred.  He  pohtely,  or  more  often  impolitely, 
decUnes  to  enter  into  Nature's  struggle  for  existence.  The 
only  struggle  he  will  make  is  to  get  all  he  can  of  the  honey 
already  in  the  hive.  He  will  buzz  and  buzz  about  that 
endlessly,  grumbling  that  he  is  not  getting  his  share.  Half 
the  energy  wasted  in  his  buzzing  would  make  a  lot  of  honey. 
But  he  is  not  a  honey-maker.  Honey-making  is  out  of  his 
bee-line.  He  considers  his  industrious  brother  merely  lucky. 
Why,  he  asks,  does  luck  never  come  his  way.^^  He  forgets, 
or  blinds  himself  to  the  fact,  that  in  Nature,  Luck  usually 
chums  with  Industry.  If  Luck  now  and  again  has  a  chance 
acquaintanceship  with  Idleness,  it  soon  drops  it.  You  may, 
indeed,  bump  into  Luck  without  looking  for  it,  but  the 
harder  you  try  to  find  it  the  oftener  you  will  bump  into  it. 
And  so  the  human  drone  would  evade  Nature's  law  of  strug- 
gle. There  is  no  evasion.  She  has  made  it  for  an  excellent 
purpose  and  will  not  be  thwarted.  The  struggle  for  exist- 
ence is  for  the  survival  of  the  fittest.  The  race  must  ad- 
vance or  go  under.  The  individual  must  struggle  if  he 
would  survive. 

Nature  is  ever  attentive  to  the  carrying  out  of  her  laws. 
If  she  sleeps  it  is  with  one  eye  open.  The  masses  contin- 
ually grumble  and  criticize  the  Government  for  the  manner 
in  which  it  rules.  They  are  merely  finding  fault  with  them- 
selves, without  being  candid  enough  to  recognize  their  fault, 
or  sincere  enough  to  try  to  correct  it.     It  is  within  their 

[28] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

power  and  their  right  to  operate  the  Government  as  they 
see  fit.  They  are  the  sovereign  people.  For  this,  they 
gave  themselves  the  right  to  self-determination  by  vote. 
They  can  change  every  law  in  the  land  by  exercising  their 
right.  Their  power  is  supreme.  When  matters  are  left 
to  the  votes  of  the  people,  we  can  safely  trust  the  majority, 
for  it  will  have  the  best  interests  of  all  at  heart.  So  long  as 
this  right  remains  sacred  to  the  masses  and  is  exercised  by 
them  in  a  spirit  of  fairness,  there  is  no  more  chance  of  a 
Bolshevistic  revolution  in  this  country  than  there  is  for  a 
snowball  to  exist  in  the  place  which  Sherman  considered 
the  synonym  for  war.  The  doctrine  of  the  Bolshevik, 
like  that  of  the  infidel,  blasts  all  hope  and  gives  nothing  in 
return.  The  Bolshevik  gives  everything  to  the  state  and 
leaves  the  individual  nothing.  Nature,  on  the  contrary, 
gives  her  fruits  to  those  who  labor.  Who  would  labor  in 
the  Bolsheviki  commonwealth,  if  indeed  it  be  a  com- 
monwealth and  not  a  confiscation  for  the  prime  benefit  of 
the  spoilers?  Not  the  rulers,  for  they  have  the  disposal  of 
everything.  Not  the  subjects,  for  they  have  no  incentive. 
Those  who  have  been  robbed  of  their  possessions  will  not 
be  fools  enough  to  strive  to  hoard  again.  It  would,  more- 
over, be  crime.  Those  who  have  been  prospered  by  the 
robbery  of  others  will  not  easily  desert  the  spoiler's  trade. 
"But  all  will  be  forced  to  work.  The  tasks  will  be  assigned 
and  exacted."  But  this  is  slavery  of  the  lowest  type.  The 
rulers  are  masters,  the  subjects  slaves,  and  the  masters  will 
never  willingly  return  to  be  lost  in  the  masses.  You  cut 
the  tree  of  human  progress  at  the  very  root  when  you  de- 
stroy human  initiative   and  the   proximate  hope  of  self- 

[29] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

betterment.  You  destroy  ambition  and  self-effort  when  you 
drag  everything  down  to  a  common  level.  And,  after  all, 
no  common  level  is  possible  in  a  world  which  ceaselessly 
changes  with  the  changing  moment.  The  principle,  there- 
fore, is  as  false  to  human  nature  as  it  is  to  the  laws  of  Nature 
in  general.  It  would  not  eliminate  the  evils  of  other  forms 
of  human  government,  but  would  add  to  them.  It  would 
not  destroy  classes,  for  ruler  and  ruled  would  still  be  in  es- 
sentially different  conditions.  Those  would  assign  the 
tasks,  exact  the  fulfillment,  punish  disobedience,  handle 
and  divide  the  profits.  These  would  have  to  accept  the 
tasks,  labor  to  execute  them,  accept  punishment  for  failure, 
and  turn  over  the  proceeds,  accepting  what  moiety  their 
masters  would  assign  them.  Self-preservation  would  ever 
keep  alive  a  scramble  for  power.  Self-preservation  would 
cause  those  who  possessed  it  to  cling  to  it  for  dear  life.  All 
would  be  officers,  none  privates.  Jealousies,  intrigues, 
favoritism,  peculations  would  flourish.  We  have  all  these 
in  Russia  to-day.  We  had  them  in  the  French  Revolution, 
and  France  survived  only  through  the  despotism  of  Napoleon. 
We  do  not  want  salvation  through  despotism.  We  do  not 
want,  consequently,  the  Bolshevistic  state.  If  to-day  in 
our  own  country,  politicians  court  and  favor  those  who  can 
help  them  into  power;  if  they  give  the  plums  of  office  to 
relatives  and  friends;  if  the  division  of  the  pork-barrel  so 
whets  human  greed,  what  would  be  the  condition  when  the 
whole  country  would  be  the  crop  of  plums  and  the  pork- 
barrel  to  be  divided?  We  would  have  not  only  to  change 
human  nature  but  Nature  itself  to  succeed.  We  cannot 
equalize  human  intelligence  and  energies,  much  less  the 

I3Q] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

moral  qualities  of  the  heart.  We  cannot  equalize  climates 
and  soils  and  the  rays  of  the  sun  and  the  amount  of  wind 
and  rain.  We  cannot  have  all  sea-coasts,  or  rivers,  or  cities 
or  smiling  valleys;  and  even  if  we  could  we  would  have  to 
change  them  to  make  them  equal,  for  all  are  of  infinite 
varieties.  And  if,  by  impossibihty,  we  had  made  them  other- 
wise equal,  all  could  not  be  equidistant  from  the  same  point. 
Some  must  be  nearer  the  railroads  and  similar  facilities; 
some  must  be  farther.  No  human  intelligence  could  por- 
tion out  tasks  in  justice  and  fairness  and  satisfy  a  hundred 
millions  of  different  inclinations  and  characters.  Human 
nature  tires  of  the  same  place  and  work,  especially  when 
place  and  work  are  not  a  matter  of  choice,  and  when  there 
is  no  self-interest  underlying.  Every  socialistic  colony  has 
been  a  rank  failure,  though  the  problems  have  been  a  bil- 
lion times  smaller  than  they  would  be  in  a  nation  like  ours. 
The  system  could  only  bring  chaos  into  human  society,  and 
the  inevitable  consequence — savagery. 

Superstition  plays  its  part  in  retarding  human  progress, 
for  superstition  is  no  friend  of  Nature.  Ignorance  of  natural 
phenomena  is  its  fruitful  parent.  It  exists  among  savage 
tribes  and  is  not  unknown  among  so-called  civilized  peoples. 
Even  men  of  high  intelligence  in  other  things  are  not  totally 
free  from  its  traces,  believing  in  the  Ouija  board,  luck  and 
unluck  and  shuddering  at  the  number  thirteen.  The  darkey 
who  carries  the  rabbit's  foot  for  luck,  forgets  the  fact  that 
the  rabbit  was  very  unlucky  when  he  himself  had  it.  The 
Sultan  of  Turkey  not  so  many  years  ago  forbade  the  impor- 
tation of  talking  machines  because  they  were  "devil  ma- 
chines."    Doubtless  afflicted  with  a  harem,  he  had  talking 

f31] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

machines  enough;  but  he  need  not  have  fled  to  superstition 
for  a  reason.  The  world  would  have  believed  him  without 
the  reason  he  assigned.  Superstition  vanishes  with  enUght- 
enment,  and  because  the  sources  of  many  naturaJ  phenomena 
are  still  unknown  there  is  no  reason  for  seeking  the  explana- 
tion in  superstition. 

Nature  in  effecting  her  works  employs  the  most  fitting 
means.  Man  would  do  well  to  imitate  her  wisdom.  Run- 
ning the  Government  of  the  United  States  is  running  the 
biggest  business  upon  earth.  It  involves  more  than  the 
management  of  governmental  affairs,  since  Congress  lays 
the  foundations  on  which  all  private  enterprises  among  us 
are  built.  Nature,  had  she  the  job  on  her  hands,  would 
choose  the  best  fitted  instruments.  We  do  otherwise  to 
our  sorrow.  Congress  that  shapes  the  destinies  of  business 
is  itself  an  exceedingly  ill-balanced  business  organization. 
About  ninety  per  cent  of  its  members  are  lawyers;  and  it  is 
a  well-known  fact  that  lawyers,  as  a  rule,  are  not  business 
men.  The  fact  could  not  be  otherwise.  Lawyers  have 
never  had  the  proper  training.  It  is  no  fault  of  theirs. 
Their  study  and  training  follow  different  lines.  Everyone 
to  his  own  trade.  It  requires  a  lifetime  of  application  to 
become  proficient  even  in  a  single  branch  of  the  law,  not  to 
speak  of  the  immense  forest  of  laws  through  whose  devious 
ways  our  modern  lawyers  must  wander;  just  as  it  takes  a 
business  man  a  lifetime  to  master  one  branch  of  business. 
It  is  to  the  discredit  of  neither  that  he  is  not  proficient  in 
the  specialty  of  the  other.  A  prudent  business  man  would 
never  attempt  to  handle  a  complicated  legal  matter,  lacking 
as  he  does  the  legal  training  and  experience  of  the  lawyer; 

[32] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

and  should  such  case  turn  up  in  his  affairs  he  at  once  com- 
mits the  matter  to  the  lawyer's  hands.  Does  not  common 
sense  teach  us  that,  conversely,  the  lawyer  should  do  the 
same  in  business  matters;  and  this  the  more  so  as  to-day  is 
the  day  of  speciahsts?  The  day  of  "Jack-of-all-trades  and 
master-of-none"  is  done  for  with  the  passing  of  primitive 
conditions.  The  struggle  for  existence  is  keener,  and  we 
must  meet  it  as  it  is.  Congress,  therefore,  deahng  as  it 
must  with  highly  specialized  and  momentous  problems, 
should,  above  all,  be  a  well-balanced  body  of  specialists 
selected  from  the  varying  interests  that  represent  our  national 
life.  If  progressive  Nature  rejects  the  Jack-of-all-trades  in 
private  business,  where  after  all  the  interests  are  subordi- 
nate and  often  petty,  much  more  does  she  insist  on  rejecting 
him  in  public  business  on  which  depend  not  only  the  well- 
being  but  the  very  existence  of  the  nation.  It  is  plain, 
therefore,  that  a  large  proportion  of  the  members  of  Congress 
should  consist  of  experienced  and  successful  business  men. 
What  would  the  last  war  have  been,  had  practical  organiza- 
tion been  left  to  Congress?  But  the  best  business  men  of 
the  country  in  a  true  spirit  of  patriotism  took  the  matter 
in  hand,  and  the  war  was  won.  It  is  true  that  the  condi- 
tions of  peace  are  different  from  those  of  war,  but  the  differ- 
ence of  these  conditions  has  no  bearing  on  the  fundamental 
and  essential  principle  of  efficiency.  Theorists  and  ideal- 
ists may  suggest.  Restricted  in  their  sphere,  they  may  be 
of  incalculable  help;  but  in  the  practical  sphere,  which  is  the 
sphere  of  Congress,  we  need  the  practical  man,  for  he,  and 
he  alone,  will  know  whether  in  given  conditions  the  theory 
will  or  will  not  work.    Thus  it  is  that  many  laws  of  Congress, 

[331 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning, 

the  pet  fads  of  unpractical  theorists,  have  imposed  unwork- 
able conditions  on  business,  to  the  common  detriment  of 
the  whole  nation.  Ajax  defied  the  lightning  and  that  was 
bad  enough.  It  was  only  when  he  was  completely  daft, 
however,  that  he  mixed  himself  with  the  practical  commis- 
sariat of  the  camp  and  threw  it  into  complete  disorder. 
But  this,  at  least,  must  be  said  of  him,  he  didn't  pretend,  in 
his  folly,  to  be  serving  the  public  interests. 

The  mismanagement  of  the  railroads  is  £in  illustration 
of  my  point.  From  a  profit-paying  business  under  compe- 
tent and  efficient  management,  to  a  bankrupt  concern  in- 
volving in  the  last  eighteen  months  a  loss  of  nearly  a  half 
a  billion  of  dollars  under  Jack-of-all-trades  inefficiency  has 
been  the  appaUing  but  inevitable  decline  of  our  railroads. 
Nature's  law  of  efficiency  and  fairness  was  set  at  nought, 
and  the  resultant  failure  includes  not  the  monetary  consid- 
eration alone,  but  the  degeneration  of  roads  and  roadbed, 
degeneration  of  equipment,  degeneration  of  service,  increased 
rates.  There  were  four  elements  to  be  harmonized  in  the 
problem:  the  interests  of  the  pubhc,  those  of  labor,  those 
of  capital,  and  those  of  individual  Congressmen.  The  last 
element  does  not  belong  by  right  to  the  problem,  for  Con- 
gressmen are  the  servants  of  the  people;  self-interest,  how- 
ever, insisted  on  its  retention.  It  became,  in  fact,  the  main 
element.  The  Congressmen,  therefore,  to  hold  their  position, 
which  depends  on  popular  vote,  sought  to  curry  favor  with 
the  pubhc  and  with  labor.  It  was  not  a  question  of  fair- 
ness all  around.  It  was  a  question  of  personal  political 
expediency ;  and,  as  in  the  present  condition  of  popular  senti- 
ment.    Capital   could  more   easily   be   sacrificed.     A   law 

[34] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

regulating  railroad  rates  was  passed.  The  suffering  public 
accepted  it;  restless  and  defiant  Labor  pocketed  the  pecun- 
iary profit ;  two  legs  of  the  Congressional  tripod  were  strength- 
ened, the  third,  Capital,  had  to  bear  the  whole  strain.  So 
Congressmen  clapped  one  another  on  the  back.  They  could 
fool  the  people  some  of  the  time,  and  Congressmen  often 
think  that  the  people  enjoy  the  process  no  matter  what  the 
cost.  But  we  cannot  repeat  too  often  that  Nature  cannot 
be  fooled;  and,  we  should  add,  it  is  dangerous  to  fool  with 
Nature.  The  problem  was  not  solved  because  not  solved 
fairly.  Labor  looked  to  its  own  interests  alone.  It  was 
ready  to  paralyze  industry  and  cause  no  end  of  suffering  to 
the  nation  if  its  excessive  demands  were  not  complied  with. 
*'Yield,  or  we  strike,"  it  said,  and  Congress  yielded.  But 
Labor  so  placated  is  only  the  fire  when  new  material  is  thrown 
upon  it.  Its  flames  subside  for  the  moment,  only  to  rage 
more  fiercely  with  the  super-added  wood.  Labor's  demand 
had  brought  compliance;  there  was  no  limit  any  longer  to 
what  it  could  demand.  It  could  always  "strike";  and  this 
is  the  condition  of  the  roads  that  Congress  has  turned  back 
to  Capital.  Congress  has  the  billions  of  the  country  to  prey 
upon.  Capital  has  not.  Congress  can  run  the  railroads  at 
a  loss  and  tax  the  public  to  cover  its  inefficiencies.  Capital 
cannot.  Receipts  must  cover  the  outlay.  They  must  do 
more  if  human  energy  is  to  be  employed  in  it.  Exorbitant 
rates  kill  business.  Exorbitant  rates  are  required  to  satisfy 
the  exorbitant  demands  of  labor.  The  industrial  life  of  the 
country  is  hanging  by  a  thread.  No  wonder  that  Mr. 
McAdoo  skipped  out  of  the  muddle.  The  laws  of  Nature, 
for  success,  require,  as  we  have  said,  a  proper  balance.     Just 

[35] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

as  water  strives  to  keep  its  level,  so  everything,  to  be  stable, 
must  balance  perfectly.  Unbalanced  things  in  Nature  are 
impossible.  The  aviator  falls  to  his  death,  when,  by  some 
derangement  in  his  machine,  the  balance  is  lost.  To  fly, 
his  machine  and  his  actions  must  be  shaped  by  Nature's 
laws;  and  by  Nature's  laws  must  human  laws  be  shaped, 
else  those  who  use  them  inevitably  fall  as  falls  the  aviator. 
Every  intelligent  man  sees  that  the  unbalanced  condition 
of  railroads  threatens  ruin.  The  railroads  are  the  arteries 
of  our  national  hfe.  A  railroad  war  prevents  the  necessary 
distribution  of  materials  throughout  our  national  system. 
Even  without  a  railroad  war,  present  conditions  bleed  the 
carrier,  who  perishes  on  the  way.  The  only  solution  is  a 
reduction  of  Labor's  demands,  and  Labor  is  demanding 
more.  The  fault  is  in  the  radical  element  of  Labor  whose 
only  thought  is  plunder;  plunder  under  the  law,  if  may  be; 
plunder  outside  the  law  if  necessary.  It  would  kill  the 
goose  that  lays  the  golden  eggs  to  feast  on  the  goose.  And 
provided  that  there  are  enough  geese  for  themselves  to  feed 
on,  and  they  are  the  only  ones  in  their  idea  fit  to  five,  the 
rest  of  humanity  may  feast  on  the  feathers.  It  is  to  be 
hoped  that  the  conservative  element  in  labor  will  prevail, 
for  in  a  labor  revolution  they  would  fare  no  better  than  our- 
selves. The  seeds  of  unfairness  are  not  of  American  origin. 
The  conditions  of  American  life  are  not  favorable  to  their 
growth.  We  are  confident,  therefore,  that  matters  will 
finally  adjust  themselves  and  that  the  unnatural  and  irra- 
tional legislation  that  caused  the  unbalancing  of  our  rail- 
roads vnll  be  repealed  in  favor  of  compulsory  arbitration. 
We  regret,  indeed,  that  matters  should  come  to  this,  much 

[36] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning, 

preferring  as  we  do  the  milder  method  of  friendly  compro- 
mise. But  our  Jacks-of-all-trades  insisted  on  playing  the 
part  of  the  doctor,  and  the  natural  result  is  a  very  sick  patient. 
Nature  is  not  wasteful.  To  the  unscientific  eye  she  may 
seem  to  be  so,  but  science  teaches  that  she  is  the  most 
thrifty  of  housewives.  She  wastes  nothing.  The  giant  of 
the  forest,  having  fulfilled  its  purpose,  sinks  into  mold.  It 
is  only  that  this  mold  may  nourish  a  more  vigorous  successor. 
It  is  always  so  when  she  is  left  to  herself.  It  is  man,  who 
does  not  leave  her  to  herself,  that  is  the  cause  of  waste.  He 
is  wasteful  because  it  is  her  treasures  that  he  is  using.  It 
is  Smith  with  Jones'  money,  and  the  Postal  Service  of  our 
country  has  all  the  other  Smiths  green  with  envy  at  its  suc- 
cess in  wasting.  It  is  practically  a  monopoly,  and  having 
no  competitors,  business  necessarily  flows  to  it  even  without 
its  seeking.  It  needs  no  drummers,  advertising  is  free,  it 
deals  with  a  commodity  that  is  a  general  necessity  of  every- 
day life.  It  has  everything  that  Nature  can  bestow  to  make 
it  a  success.  It  has,  however,  been  operated  for  years  by 
the  Government  at  a  loss.  Postmasters,  imposed  by  the 
exigencies  of  party  or  appointed  for  political  reasons,  too 
often  serve  as  mere,  though  expensive,  ornaments.  Assist- 
ant postmasters  do  the  real  work  at  salaries  half  the  size  of 
what  are  donated  to  their  figure-head  chiefs.  In  private 
business,  these  latter  would  be  stirred  to  energy  by  the  pros- 
pect of  advancement;  if,  indeed,  the  necessity  of  efficiency 
for  the  keeping  of  their  jobs  did  not  stimulate  them  to  energy. 
Were  the  Post  Office  a  private  enterprise,  there  would  be 
natural  incentives  to  work  diligently.  Here  there  are  none. 
The  officials  work  for  a  salary.    Their  position  is  political, 

[37] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

secure  if  they  have  a  drag,  insecure  if  they  haven't  no  mat- 
ter what  their  experience  and  competency.  And,  more  than 
this,  efficiency  is  the  surest  door  to  dismissal  if  exertion  and 
activity  on  their  part  cast  a  headlight  on  the  supineness  of 
a  political  pet.  MiUions  of  dollars  are  thus  wasted  yearly. 
No  private  business  could  succeed  under  such  conditions. 
Neither  does  the  Post  Office  succeed.  Its  failure  is  taken 
for  granted  by  all,  remains  unexplained,  uncorrected,  and 
is  allowed  haphazardly  to  continue.  Inefficiency,  irrespon- 
sibiKty  and  lack  of  purpose  drag  on  and  we  do  not  seem 
to  care. 

Do  not  say  that  we  are  not  interested  in  the  matter.  We 
are  all  interested.  It  is  our  business.  The  money  that 
could  have  been  saved  in  the  Post  Office  Department  in  the 
last  ten  years  without  loss  of  efficiency,  had  sound  business 
practice  instead  of  slipshod  political  methods  been  followed, 
would  have  built  a  perfect  system  of  highways  throughout 
our  country  and  property  values  would  have  been  increased 
by  biffions  of  dollars.  Everything  follows  good  roads — 
homes,  farms,  manufactures — for  perfect  transportation 
faciUties  lessen  costs  and  consequently  increase  profits. 
And  even  where  profits  are  not  increased  the  diminished 
price  of  the  article  puts  it  within  the  means  of  the  ordinary 
consumer.  Prosperity  and  happiness,  pleasures  and  com- 
forts, are  the  result.  The  wasted  money  deprives  the  pub- 
lic of  comforts  to  which  all  are  entitled.  To  say  that  it  is 
necessary  to  run  the  Post  Office  at  a  loss  for  the  good  of  the 
people  is  unsound  and  silly.  There  is  no  such  necessity. 
It  is  only  an  application  of  the  old  quack  theory  that  pre- 
scribed blood-letting  for  all  the  ills  that  flesh  is  heir  to.     The 

[38] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

ordinary  man  is  none  too  rich.  Keep  the  blood,  then,  in  the 
veins  of  the  nation,  but  render  it  sound  and  healthy  by  purg- 
ing the  system  of  mismanagement  and  graft;  and  if  you  do 
not  wish  to  employ  the  savings  in  public  benefits,  do  a  public 
benefit  by  affording  lower  rates  and  we  will  do  the  saving. 
Nature  distributes  her  energies.  She  has  made  two 
hemispheres  divided  by  oceans.  She  has  established  natural 
boundaries  on  the  continents  and  divided  her  children  into 
races  and  nations.  The  Government  naturally  loves  con- 
centration of  power.  It  is  un-American,  for  our  constitution 
divided  the  functions  of  Government  precisely  for  this  pur- 
pose, that  concentration,  the  principle  of  monarchy,  should 
never  sap  the  strength  of  democracy.  The  framers  of  our 
constitution  sought  the  development  and  perfection  of  our 
people  with  the  minimum  of  authority  consistent  with  this 
purpose.  The  war,  as  an  abnormal  condition  of  affairs, 
demanded,  perhaps,  the  concentration  of  pubhc  utilities. 
We  were  in  the  war  to  win  it  at  any  price.  If  concentration 
would  help,  as  it  should  and  did  help,  we  were  willing  to 
make  the  sacrifice.  We  speak  only  of  the  effect  of  such 
concentration,  namely  the  deterioration  of  public  utilities 
under  the  control  of  the  Government.  Perhaps  it  is  better 
that  the  opportunity  was  given,  as  it  practically  showed  the 
fallacy  of  what  some  theorists  advocated.  Railroads, 
shipping,  telephones  and  telegraph  supplied  matter  for  the 
experiment.  The  result  is  denied  by  no  one.  He  who  runs 
may  read.  Compared  with  private  enterprise,  the  Gov- 
ernment was  a  failure.  If  such  was  the  result  in  a  limited 
field,  what  would  it  have  been  in  a  field  covering  all  the 
lines  of  production  and  distribution?     Its  management  of 

[39] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

the  Post  Office  is  a  failure ;  its  administration  of  lEiilroads  a 
failure.  So  much  is  it  a  failure  tha'  railroad  employees 
think  that  they  could  run  the  railroads  better  by  themselves. 
If  the  Government  will  stand  the  loss,  that  is,  if  the  people 
will,  for  the  burden  will  fall  upon  them,  it  might  be  well  for 
general  peace  to  make  the  trial.  The  private  capital,  how- 
ever, invested  in  the  railroads  should  be  protected;  for  rail- 
road employees  have  no  right  to  experiment  with  other 
people's  money.  Were  such  right  once  established,  even  in 
a  single  case,  the  employees  of  every  business  would  claim 
the  right  to  run  such  business,  to  the  nation-wide  spoliation 
of  property,  confiscated  merely  on  the  plea  that  the  owner 
had  hired  them  to  do  his  work.  We  merely  say  that  with 
due  safeguards  of  justice,  the  experiment  of  railroad  em- 
ployees though  costly,  would  pave  the  way  to  peace;  since 
they  and  the  public  would  realize  that  outsiders  should  be 
careful  about  mixing  in  what  they  are  ignorant  of,  and 
subordinates  would  learn  that  there  are  more  difficulties  in 
management  than  ever  entered  into  their  heads.  The  sane 
way  would  be  to  return  the  railroads  to  their  rightful  owners 
for  operation,  limit  their  profits  to  a  fair  rate  of  interest, 
provide  for  a  definite  percentage  to  be  put  aside  for  repairs 
and  betterments,  and  if  there  be  a  surplus  establish  lower 
rates  for  the  public  benefit,  or  establish  bonuses  for  efficiency 
of  service. 

Did  Government  control  show  efficiency  in  our  Merchant 
Marine?  It  was  built  by  the  Government  under  Govern- 
ment management  at  almost  twice  the  cost  at  wliich  it 
could  be  produced  in  England ;  and  was  built  to  compete  with 
other  countries  that  can  operate  ships  at  half  the  money  we 

[40] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

have  to  pay.  How  is  competition  possible  with  such  a 
handicap?  Let  us  grant  the  need  of  an  American  Merchant 
Marine.  We  are  not  condemning  it.  We  are  condemning 
solely  the  waste  of  Government  construction  and  operation. 
If  its  existence  be  of  public  utility  and  necessity,  let  us 
choose  the  method  of  greatest  efficiency  and  least  expense, 
and  that  is  to  leave  the  construction  and  management  to 
private  ownership,  assisting  with  such  Government  help  as 
may  be  needful  to  success.  Had  this  method  been  followed, 
American  ships  would  not  have  vanished  from  the  seas. 
Business  men  have  again  and  again  demonstrated  their 
abihty  to  make  successes  out  of  political  failures. 

Nature  never  fails  and  yet  she  adapts  herself  to  circum- 
stances. So  wise  are  her  laws  that  she  never  gets  into  a 
rut.  She  does  not  make  doctors  that  lose  every  patient,  as 
we  make  Congressmen  out  of  lawyers  to  cure  our  social 
diseases.  She  is  not  apathetic  as  to  the  expenditure  of  her 
forces,  as  voters  who  will  not  correct  the  abuses  of  the  waste- 
ful employment  of  their  money.  She  is  not  the  slave  of 
custom  nor  is  she  the  enemy  of  novelty.  She  is  not  afraid 
of  a  Burbank  and  others  of  his  kind,  in  the  improvement  of 
flower  and  fruit.  She  willingly  adapts  herself  under  their 
hand  to  show  forth  the  wealth  of  her  treasures.  She  was 
not  jealous  of  Franklin  that  he  indicated  the  way  to  the 
utilizing  of  her  powers.  She  loses  nothing  by  the  process, 
and  her  children  gain  much.  She  is  no  slave  to  custom, 
and,  loving  work,  she  is  proud  of  inventors  who  show  what 
she  can  do.  yet  man,  her  beneficiary,  is  often  blind  even 
to  his  own  interests.  Year  after  year  improvements  are 
fought.     The  efforts  of  inventors  are  ridiculed.     The  thing 

[41] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

is  held  to  be  impossible  because  it  never  has  been  done. 
Electricity  could  not  be  stored  on  account  of  its  diffusive- 
ness, so  it  was  asserted,  and  if  stored  would  be  a  constant 
menace,  as  electricity  is  when  stored  in  the  storm  cloud. 
The  electric  light  was  useful  as  a  scientific  experiment  in 
the  cabinet,  but  could  never  be  used  for  ordinary  fighting 
in  our  homes.  The  machinery  needed  was  too  clumsy  and 
expensive,  the  light  too  dazzling  and  harmful  to  the  eyes, 
the  current  could  not  be  divided  practically.  Could  not? 
Ignorance,  precisely  because  ignorance  cfings  too  tenaciously 
to  the  word  "cannot."  It  itself  cannot  and  it  measures 
possibility  by  its  own  incapacity.  Civilization  wiU  reaUy 
exist  then  only  when  people  have  lost  their  terror  of  new 
ideas. 

Nature  in  her  wisdom  brings  harmony  out  of  inequalities, 
and  renders  each  useful  to  the  other.  Beauty  in  variety 
is  her  law.  What  would  music  be  if  limited  to  a  single  note 
no  matter  how  charming?  What  the  beauty  of  the  human 
body  if  restricted  to  a  single  part  or  feature?  Each  has  its 
own  function  and  aU  conspire  to  the  common  welfare.  Not 
all  functions  are  the  same;  not  all,  perhaps,  equal  in  the 
estimation  of  mankind;  but  all  are  of  supreme  utifity;  most 
of  absolute  necessity.  If  aU  were  head,  there  would  be 
neither  hands  nor  feet.  If  all  were  eyes,  we  would  lack  the 
other  senses  save  touch,  and  this  would  be  useless  in  regard 
to  the  perception  of  external  things,  for  the  eye  closes  when 
brought  into  contact  with  them.  In  Nature  there  is  no 
jealousy.  The  hands  and  feet  work  in  wilfing  harmony 
with  the  head.  Nor  does  the  head  busy  itself  in  plotting 
ways  and  means  to  thwart  and  paralyze  the  efforts  of  the 

[42] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

stomach.  It  is  in  the  social  organism  alone  that  such  things 
happen  because  men  are  false  to  Nature.  The  stomach  is 
the  Capitalist  of  the  human  frame.  It  gathers  the  materials 
that  are  to  be  distributed  through  the  body.  It  needs  the 
direction  of  the  head,  just  as  Capital,  in  society,  needs  the 
direction  of  social  authority.  It  should  neither  by  unwise 
selfishness  seek  to  retain  everything  for  itself,  nor  by  foolish 
inertia  deprive  the  rest  of  the  body  of  what  it  imperatively 
needs.  The  hands  and  feet  are  better  off  by  having  a  stom- 
ach to  help  them,  and  the  stomach  is  better  off  by  having 
the  assistance  of  the  hands  and  feet.  It  is  false  and  untrue 
to  Nature,  therefore,  to  consider  Capitalists  and  Laborers 
as  dissociated  and  antagonistic  members  of  the  social  body. 
Both  are  merely  human;  each  with  its  particular  function; 
each  looking  to  its  own  welfare,  but,  precisely  for  its  own 
welfare,  considerate  of  others.  And  this  the  more  so  in  the 
social  body,  as  in  the  turning  of  the  wheel  of  fortune,  one 
member  may  be  converted  into  and  replace  the  other. 
What  is  foot  to-day  may  be  changed  into  stomach  tomorrow; 
what  was  stomach  may  be  converted  into  foot;  not  only  may, 
but  actually  is,  so  converted  daily.  And  lol  the  change  of 
principles  and  ideas  in  virtue  of  the  change  of  place  and 
function.  The  Laborer  becoming  Capitalist  turns  out 
Capitalist  through  and  through;  the  Capitalist,  becoming 
Laborer,  is  true  to  the  type. 

The  conflict  is  due  to  over-selfishness,  often  on  one  side, 
more  commonly  on  both.  The  stomach,  taken  up  with  it- 
self, would  give  as  little  as  possible  to  hand  and  foot,  blind 
to  the  fact  that  without  the  healthful  exercise  of  the  other 
parts  it  itself  must  suffer;  and  the  hand  and  foot  want  to 

[43] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

be  stomach,  thinking  that  it  is  so  much  better  off  than  they. 
Each,  shirking  its  own  part,  blames  the  other  for  the  result. 
The  law  of  self-preservation  properly  understood  would 
make  them  work  together  in  a  sound  and  healthy  mutual 
effort;  ill-understood  and  practiced,  it  brings  mutual  ruin 
to  both.  Nature  is  fair.  It  asks  a  sacrifice  in  all  the  mem- 
bers, but  makes  compensation  a  hundred  fold  in  the  common 
welfare  of  all.  The  hand  and  foot,  could  they  think,  might 
be  inclined  to  believe  that  because  the  stomach  of  itself  does 
not  move  about  as  they  do  it  is  lazy  and  idle;  just  as  the 
Laborer  may  think  that  the  Capitalist  has  nothing  to  do 
but  to  enjoy  his  money.  But  the  stomach  labors  even  when 
the  other  members  rest;  and  the  Capitalist  in  the  compe- 
tition of  business  has  oftentimes  many  a  worry  when  the 
Laborer  with  the  day's  work  over  is  at  rest  in  the  bosom  of 
his  family.  Nature  has  attached  to  every  state  a  counter- 
balance which  easily  escapes  the  notice  of  those  who  are  not 
placed  in  it.  Short-sighted  humanity  balks  at  present  sac- 
rifice. None  wish  to  give  and  all  are  demanding  to  receive. 
All  would  feast  at  the  banquet,  but  none  will  cook  the  vict- 
uals, and  hence  the  mutual  recriminations  between  selfish 
capital  and  selfish  labor  that  fill  the  air  and  the  consequent 
discontent  and  soreness.  The  Capitalist  who  listens  to 
Labor  only  when  Labor  is  strong  enough  to  grasp  him  by 
the  throat  and  force  him  to  give  ear,  is  as  unfair  and  unjust 
as  the  Laborer  who  when  fairly  treated  will  give  no  ear  to 
Capital;  and  because  he  believes  he  can  grasp  it  by  the  throat 
strikes  for  higher  wages  and  unfair  hours,  though  reason 
tells  him  that  Capital  must  go  out  of  business,  or,  if  it  re- 
mains in  it,  either  pay  less  to  those  who  are  not  defended  by 

144] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

Labor  or  raise  proportionally  the  price  of  the  product,  and 
the  Laborer  is  really  no  better  off  than  before.  The  amount 
of  money  is  indeed  greater,  but  its  purchasing  value  is  less. 
The  high  cost  of  living  must,  while  this  unnatural  contest 
rages,  perforce  remain. 

Of  all  the  problems,  therefore,  confronting  the  lawmakers 
and  people  in  our  country  to-day,  the  most  acute  and  far- 
reaching  is  the  struggle  of  Capital  versus  Labor,  or  Labor 
versus  Capital,  as  you  choose  to  put  it.  Upon  the  fair 
solution  of  this  problem  hangs  the  peace  and  welfare  of  the 
United  States.  The  disease  that  afflicts  us  is  acute  nervous 
prosperity,  but  nervous  exaltation  even  more  perhaps  than 
nervous  depression  is  fatal  to  the  nerves.  Both  Labor  and 
Capital  should  realize  that  peace,  agreement,  mutual  under- 
standing, equal  rights  and  justice,  cannot  be  secured  by 
violence.  We  cannot  continue  as  we  are.  There  must  be 
a  readjustment,  a  readjustment  in  the  fair  spirit  of  com- 
promise in  which  each  side  yields  something  to  obtain  in 
return  mutual  harmony  and  effort  which  are  of  greater 
value.  A  tug-of-war  exhausts  both.  Compromise  is  Na- 
ture's way.  In  every  chemical  compound  the  elements 
sacrifice  some  of  their  properties  to  be  enriched  by  others. 
Oxygen  is  a  fierce  burner,  but  in  a  compromise  with  hydro- 
gen we  have  the  cool  and  refreshing  water.  Nature  will 
repay  whatever  fair  compromise  is  made.  Better  is  it  for 
humanity  that  oxygen  and  hydrogen  can  compose  their 
differences,  and  better  is  it  for  the  elements  themselves. 
They  must  exist  side  by  side  in  Nature,  and,  as  clashing 
factions,  they  would  be  the  source  of  eternal  war.  How 
much  better  to  combine  in  forming  the  dew  and  the  rivulet, 

[45] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

the  brook  and  the  lake,  the  majestic  river  and  the  unfath- 
omed  deep.  You  may  hook  horns  with  Nature,  if  you  wish, 
but  do  not  be  astonished  if  you  see  stars.  You  have  wasted 
your  energy  and  must  nurse  your  bones.  The  constitution 
she  has  framed  for  man  is  not  subject  to  his  amendment. 
She  indicates  the  way,  man  deviates  from  it  at  his  peril. 
Put  an  end  to  strife  in  the  smaller  units  of  society  and  you 
will  pave  the  way  to  universal  peace. 

Nature  labors  and  her  children  must  labor  with  her. 
Work  is  the  key  to  success  in  the  struggle  for  existence. 
Labor,  therefore,  is  the  main  thing  of  real  value  to  us.  It 
is  for  this  reason  that  she  supplies  her  materials  in  such 
abundance  and  leaves  to  us  the  finished  product.  Money 
is  nothing  more  than  a  convenient  means  of  measuring  effort. 
If  no  one  worked,  money  would  have  no  value.  If  you  have 
money  and  will  not  work,  you  will  find  yourself  surrounded 
by  others  who  will  work  and  work  ceaselessly  to  separate 
you  from  it.  You  cannot,  therefore,  avoid  individual  effort 
in  life's  struggle,  and  you  must  work  intelligently  or  faiL 
Reason  is  given  to  direct  us  that  we  work  aright.  Right 
reason  gives  birth  to  sound  judgment,  sound  judgment  be- 
gets success.  The  farmer  who  does  not  cultivate  his  land 
and  the  farmer  who  sows  bad  seed  neglect  reason's  guidance, 
judge  badly  and  fail  in  fife's  struggle.  Nature  says  "As 
you  sow,  so  shall  you  reap."  She  has  established  the  meas- 
ure. You  cannot  change  it.  Neither  wiU  she,  for  she  never 
goes  on  a  strike,  never  refuses  to  perform  her  part — she 
leaves  to  you  alone  failure  or  success. 

If  money  is  but  a  convenient  measure  of  effort,  it  is 
naturally  flexible,  for  convenience  has  no  absolute  standard. 

[46] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

But  man  has  made  it  more  arbitrary  than  need  be,  making 
inroads  on  it  at  various  points  and  readjusting  it  tempo- 
rarily to  meet  the  exigencies  of  the  moment.  Many  heads, 
much  confusion;  more  confusion  where  there  are  less  brains, 
or  where  there  are  plenty  of  brains  not  honestly  employed. 
As  money  is  a  measure  of  effort,  so  conversely,  effort  be- 
comes a  measure  of  money.  And  if  more  money  be  given 
for  less  effort,  less  effort  demands  more  money.  Higher 
wages  have  naturally  brought  about  a  higher  cost  of  living, 
since  the  same  amount  of  effort  that  cost  less  before  costs 
more  now.  Money's  purchasing  value  has  depreciated. 
The  real  value  of  effort  is  still  the  same,  the  money  value  is 
less.  Labor  organizations  powerful  enough  to  enforce  their 
demands  have  obtained  higher  wages.  Weaker  unions  or 
individuals  whose  wages  have  not  proportionately  advanced 
suffer.  As  the  stronger  unions  get  more  pay,  the  price  of 
articles  advances  to  meet  the  imfair  drain.  Members  of 
the  weaker  unions  must  purchase  at  prices  proportioned  to 
the  higher  wages  of  the  others.  When  the  wages  of  all  are 
raised,  the  price  goes  still  higher  and  people  begin  to  howl. 
Everybody  wants  everybody  else  to  come  down  but  no  one 
will  lead  the  procession.  Like  the  cats  across  the  clothes- 
line, we  are  up  in  the  air  clawing  each  other.  If  it  is  a 
struggle  of  Nature,  the  survival,  namely,  of  the  one  that 
can  last  longer,  the  advantage  is  with  Capital;  for  Capital 
has  it  in  its  power  at  any  time  to  cut  the  line,  scamper  to 
a  place  of  safety  and  subsist  on  what  it  has  hoarded.  With 
the  line  cut  and  Capital  in  retirement.  Labor  will  have  to 
hustle  to  keep  from  starvation.  A  Bolshevistic  revolution 
with  its  murder  and  rapine  never  benefits  the  people  at  large, 

[47] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

nor  does  it  ultimately  benefit  the  leaders  themselves,  for  the 
measure  that  they  deal  out  to  others  is  dealt  out  to  them  in 
turn.  Where  one  part  of  Labor  profits  at  the  expense  of 
the  other  part,  as  is  usually  the  case.  Labor  pays  the  peneJty, 
for  a  house  divided  against  itself  must  fall.  Nothing  good 
is  accompfished  by  travehng  in  circles.  A  fair  way  must 
be  found  to  solve  the  problem,  a  way  based  on  the  real  value 
of  effort  which  will  work  automatically  and  eterngdly,  as  do 
the  tides  of  the  sea. 

Nature  goes  to  the  root  of  the  evil,  so  should  a  fair-minded 
Congress.  Temporary  legislation  to  cure  this  or  that  symp- 
tom or  partial  ailment  only  aggravates  the  evil  when  the 
medicine  is  prescribed  without  a  careful  examination  of  the 
patient.  A  medicine  that  will  alleviate  rheumatism  will 
stop  heart  action  if  the  heart  be  weak.  There  are  times 
when  Labor  does  not  think  and  Capital  does  not  feel,  and 
hence  the  need  of  laws  to  prevent  and  correct  excesses. 
But  clear-eyed  justice  must  rule  here;  blind  justice  tumbles 
everyone  into  the  pit.  For  years  Congress  has  been  looking 
at  one  side — the  regulation  of  Capital's  tendency  to  combine 
in  restraint  of  trade,  and  of  the  railroads  to  demand  the 
limit  of  what  traffic  will  bear.  These  are  the  sins  of  Capital. 
Correct  them.  But  for  the  same  reasons  and  as  equally 
detrimental  to  society  must  organized  Labor's  tendency  to 
limit  production  be  curbed,  for  scarcity  inflates  prices  and 
causes  multipUed  and  needless  hardships.  Arbitration  in 
fairness  is  the  only  road,  and  the  sooner  we  take  to  it  the 
sooner  shall  we  reach  the  haven  of  peace. 

Nature  is  thrifty.  It  doesn't  fike  roundabout  ways  in 
which  energy  is  wasted.     Were  we  to  copy  her,  we  could 

[48] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

remedy  in  great  part  the  evils  of  the  moment.  The  highest 
wage  and  lowest  cost  of  living,  consistent  with  fairness, 
should  be  the  common  aim.  We  could  come  nearer  to  the 
ideal  by  correcting  our  selling  system.  In  this  we  are  ex- 
travagantly wasteful.  Save  expense  by  getting  the  prod- 
uct to  the  consumer  by  the  most  direct  route.  Herein 
lies  much  of  the  solution  of  the  high  cost  of  living.  At  pres- 
ent the  consumer  gets  the  article,  plus  the  producer's  profit, 
plus  the  profit  of  all  the  intermediate  handlers.  Reason 
should  guide  us.  In  the  primitive  wilderness  wild  animals 
break  the  first  trails.  Usually  they  make  them  in  lines 
that  lead  straightest  to  food  and  water.  They  choose  the 
shortest,  not  the  most  labor-saving  way.  For  them  it  is 
generally  a  question  of  life — to  leave  their  haunts  and  return 
to  them  with  the  least  possible  time,  beset  as  they  are  on  all 
sides  by  enemies.  The  pioneers  came  and  converted  these 
trails  into  roads.  The  wild  animals  had  done  part  of  the 
labor.  To  take  advantage  of  what  they  had  done  cheap- 
ened expense  and  hastened  the  road's  completion.  More- 
over, the  pioneer  himself  was  beset  by  enemies,  travel  was 
not  great,  the  articles  transported  were  comparatively  few. 
The  road  was  far  from  ideal  but  it  sufficed  for  his  needs. 
Later,  with  the  increase  of  civilization  and  its  requirements, 
reason  showed  that  the  easiest  way  is  really  the  shortest  in 
the  end,  and  roads  were  built  to  move  heavy  loads  safely 
and  easily.  The  pack-train  with  its  inconveniences  was 
discarded,  the  taverns  along  the  road  were  no  longer  needed, 
a  sign-board  took  the  place  of  a  guide,  expense  was  corre- 
spondingly reduced  and  efficiency  promoted.  The  trouble 
at  present  is  that  in  distribution  we  are  still  following  pack- 

[49] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning, 

train  methods.  We  have  guides  in  our  drummers,  we  have 
our  road-house  men  in  our  middle-men  under  whose  roofs 
our  goods  pass  many  a  night,  and  the  consumer  must  pay 
for  it  all.  Our  development  has  been  so  rapid,  our  resources 
so  great  that  economy  has  been  thrown  to  the  winds.  When 
a  ten-cent  piece  would  close  a  hole,  we  plastered  the  hole 
with  a  dollar  and  didn't  even  take  the  time  to  see  whether 
the  dollar  would  stick.  What  is  the  difference?  The  con- 
sumer will  be  content  to  pay. 

And  yet  the  producer  is  not  always  to  blame,  or  perhaps 
we  should  say  the  fault  is  not  solely  his.  The  consumer  is 
wasteful.  The  factory  that  makes  automobiles  could  de- 
liver them  directly  to  the  user  for  about  half  the  price  that 
he  pays  at  present,  and  make  the  very  same  profit,  if  the 
buyer  did  not  oblige  the  manufacturer  to  incur  so  much  ex- 
pense in  getting  the  auto  to  him.  Making  the  estimate  a 
very  high  one,  the  car  that  costs  ultimately  $2,000  costs 
actually  $800  in  the  making.  The  car,  direct  from  the 
factory,  could  be  put  in  the  hands  of  the  buyer  for  $1,200, 
and  the  profit  of  the  maker  would  be  greater  than  at  present. 
The  $800  difference  has  gone  in  advertising,  in  salesmen, 
managers,  bookkeepers,  stenographers,  rents  and  other 
overhead  expenses.  Each  buyer  should  know  the  type  of 
car  he  wants.  Suppose  that  he  doesn't  know.  Surely  the 
investment  of  a  few  dollars  would  obtain  the  needed  informa- 
tion; but  now  he  is  paying  the  $800  and  does  so  uncom- 
plainingly, or  if  he  complains  he  will  make  no  effort  to  cor- 
rect the  method.  From  factory  to  user  has  been  tried  many 
times  and  as  often  has  been  abandoned  as  a  failure.  The 
fault  is  not  in  the  system  but  in  the  public.     It  is  hard  to 

[501 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

introduce  new  methods.  Apathy  combined  with  prejudice 
against  innovations  which  are  for  its  welfare  retard  the  prog- 
ress of  humanity.  From  factory  directly  to  buyer  would 
force  us  to  change  our  expensive  selling  methods.  As  lovers 
of  the  antique  we  will  not  change.  A  single  factory  or  a 
dozen  could  not  effect  the  reform,  and  we  must  jog  on  in  our 
**one-hoss  shay"  until  people  are  sufficiently  educated  or 
interested  to  support  advanced  methods. 

Let  us  take  another  instance.  A  town  of  some  five 
thousand  people  has  six  meat  markets  where  two  would  sup- 
ply the  demand.  What  is  the  result?  Instead  of  the  ex- 
pense of  two  markets,  double  rents,  fixtures,  ice,  telephone, 
delivery,  etc.,  we  have  the  expense  practically  six-fold  or 
tripled;  or  making  an  allowance  for  the  increased  personnel 
of  the  new  markets  and  more  extensive  quarters,  let  us  say 
four-fold  or  doubled.  The  same  routes  are  worked  over, 
books  for  six  stores  must  be  kept,  and  there  are  six  managers, 
each  expecting  to  make  more  than  a  clerk's  salary  in  interest 
on  his  investment.  Two  shops  handhng  the  meat  of  the 
six  could  do  so,  therefore,  at  a  greatly  decreased  expense; 
and  while  making  a  better  profit  give  the  meat  to  the  cus- 
tomer at  a  lower  price.  The  six  barely  eke  out  a  living. 
The  two  would  be  healthy  and  prosperous  concerns.  Apply 
the  principle  to  groceries,  bakeries,  dairies,  etc.,  and  we  shall 
begin  to  reaUze  our  national  waste. 

Here  again  we  should  follow  Nature's  lead,  for  we  are  all, 
under  different  aspects,  producers  and  consumers.  The 
closer  that  production  and  consumption  balance,  the  less  the 
waste.  Our  aim,  therefore,  should  be  to  strike  an  even  bal- 
ance.   For  any  number  of  consumers,  a  definite  number  of 

[51] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning, 

producers  and  distributors  are  necessary  and  sufficient. 
When  this  number  is  exceeded  waste  follows.  Let  us  illus- 
trate the  matter  by  Roosevelt's  African  expedition.  All 
food  that  could  not  be  obtained  in  the  jungle  had  to  be  car- 
ried. For  a  month's  trip,  each  packer  could  carry  only 
twenty  pounds  over  and  above  what  sufficed  for  his  per- 
sonal needs,  the  limit  of  his  load  being  sixty  pounds.  Now 
these  packers  had  to  provide,  not  for  themselves  only  but 
for  the  guides,  the  head-man,  the  equipment-packers  and  all 
others  connected  with  the  party.  How,  therefore,  was  the 
party  organized?  How  would  any  reasonable  man  organize 
it?  By  providing  everything  required  by  necessity  and 
proper  comfort,  and  by  eliminating  the  superfluous.  There 
were  the  packers  of  food.  Ten  were  required  for  each  hunter. 
There  were  the  packers  of  hunting  equipment.  There  were 
also  the  packers  of  the  camping  outfit.  The  packers  of  food 
and  hunting  equipment  represent  the  producers  of  necessi- 
ties in  life,  for  the  expedition  was  a  hunting  expedition  and 
no  hunting  could  be  done  without  them.  The  camp-outfit 
carriers  represent  the  producers  of  comforts  and  luxuries. 
They  do  not  enter  directly  into  the  hunting,  but  in  providing 
due  means  for  rest  and  refreshment  they  enter  indirectly 
and  most  efficiently.  The  absence  of  any  of  the  elements 
would  have  spoiled  the  trip.  But  here  is  where  common 
sense  enters.  Every  person  that  is  not  needed  is  a  hindrance ; 
every  superfluous  pound  carried  is  waste.  Production  and 
consumption  should  exactly  balance  if  we  would  have  the 
perfect  hunting  party.  Production  and  consumption  bal- 
anced is  the  perfect  rule.  This,  therefore,  we  should  keep 
in  view,  though  in  the  uncertainties  of  human  life  and  the 

[52] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning, 

need  of  providing  for  unforeseen  difficulties,  prudence  dic- 
tates that  production  should  moderately  exceed  estimated 
consumption.  But  this  excess  should  be  pruned  as  much  as 
possible,  for  what  is  unconsumed  is  waste. 

In  a  community,  therefore,  the  same  common  sense  should 
be  used  and  the  same  rule  applied.  When  in  any  trade  we 
have  more  people  in  production  and  distribution  than  are 
needed  to  supply  consumption,  we  have  over-production  and 
consequent  waste.  The  balance  is  destroyed  and  efficiency 
is  impaired.  The  excess  of  production  is  energy  wasted. 
It  adds  nothing  really  to  production,  for  what  is  not  wasted 
by  being  unused  is  actually  wasted  in  the  support  of  the  over- 
producer  who  is  not  required  for  social  efficiency.  He  who 
eats  up  what  he  produces  adds  nothing  to  the  common  hoard. 
The  same  principle  should  be  applied  to  the  professions  and 
to  those  that  contribute  to  the  comforts  and  luxuries  of  life. 
Lawyers  and  physicians  and  other  professional  men  we  must 
have,  and  a  moderate  number  should  be  considered  as  ne- 
cessities of  modern  and  civilized  life;  but  most  of  our  pro- 
fessions are  over-supplied  and  the  ranks  of  producers  are  de- 
pleted to  swell  those  of  mere  consumers.  We  need  head- 
men and  guides  in  the  defense  of  our  civil  rights  and  the  care 
of  our  bodies,  but  not  too  many.  We  need  suppliers  of  our 
camping  outfit  when  the  toils  of  our  daily  hunt  for  life's  ne- 
cessities and  comforts  are  over,  for  we  need  to  go  back  solaced 
and  refreshed  to  the  hunt  of  the  morrow;  but  here  too  we 
should  never  lose  sight  of  the  principle  we  have  established, 
for  it  is  of  universal  application.  Moderate  comforts  and 
pleasures  are  not  against  Nature  but  in  accordance  with 
Nature.    She  wishes  us  to  take  necessary  food.     She  adds 

[53] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

to  it  the  pleasure  of  taste.  She  does  not  measure  us  by  in- 
animate machines,  though  even  they  need  rest  and  oihng  to 
properly  perform  their  functions.  She  has  made  comfort 
and  rest  and  pleasure  a  reward  of  past  work  and  an  incen- 
tive to  future,  and  she  allows  the  earth  to  rest  in  winter  that 
it  may  awake  to  the  activities  of  spring.  She  has  no  sym- 
pathy with  socialistic  doctrines  for  she  has  not  made  man  on 
socialistic  principles.  She  has  estabhshed  our  individual 
struggle  in  which  we  must  compete  with  our  fellows,  spurred 
on  by  the  prize  of  honor  and  success.  She  has  not  estabhshed 
a  class  that  would  keep  all  on  a  level  of  inferiority,  fostering 
apathy  and  ciubing  ambition.  All  that  she  asks  is  that  in 
this  struggle  for  advancement  we  so  combine  our  efforts  that 
we  are  not  in  one  another's  way;  that  we  so  divide  our  ef- 
forts that  everything  receives  a  duly  proportioned  care; 
that  things  be  not  spoiled  by  being  over-done  like  the  roast 
in  the  oven  and  energies  wasted  that  are  needed  for  soUd 
progress.  With  this  economic  system  sweetened  by  reward 
for  extra  effort  and  efficiency  the  world  would  advance  more 
in  a  decade  than  it  would  advance  in  a  century  hampered  by 
the  socialistic  straight-jacket.  The  remedy  for  the  evils  of 
our  condition  is  not  in  cutting  off  energy  in  production,  but 
in  utihzing  and  fostering  and  increasing  energy  directed  into 
proper  channels,  as  we  have  shown  in  the  law  of  production 
and  consumption. 

If  Labor  would,  therefore,  give  the  same  attention  to 
selling  that  it  gives  to  wages,  it  would  save  twenty-five  per 
cent  on  its  purchases,  and  improve  its  condition  in  the  same 
proportion.  But  just  as  in  a  crowd  the  cry  "Stop  Thief!" 
will  raise  a  commotion  and  draw  tradesmen  from  their  work, 

[54] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

even  though  the  cry  be  false;  and  when  no  thief  is  found  the 
crowd  will  return  to  its  labors  convinced  that  a  theft  has, 
nevertheless,  been  committed;  so  the  cry  of  "Profiteer'*  is 
raised  and  all  is  hubbub  and  turmoil.  That  there  is  profit- 
erring  is  readily  conceded  just  as  it  is  conceded  that  there  is 
theft,  from  which  profiteering  often  diff'ers  little.  But  the 
loss  of  the  article  that  raised  the  cry  "Stop  Thief!"  may  be 
due  to  the  negligence  of  the  owner  who  lost  it,  but  who,  sore 
at  the  mishap  and  not  taking  time  for  reflection,  pounces  on 
some  bystander  that  excites  his  suspicions.  So  the  cry  of 
"Profiteer"  is  raised  to  account  for  the  loss  of  money  en- 
tailed by  higher  prices,  and  the  impression  remains  even 
when  the  manufacturer  or  merchant  shows  that  he  is  barely 
making  an  honest  profit.  He  is  still  suspected.  The  loss 
is  mainly  due,  however,  to  the  expensive  selling  system  fos- 
tered and  approved,  at  least  tacitly,  by  the  consumer,  and 
in  which  billions  of  dollars  are  yearly  lost. 

But  it  is  objected  that  our  scientific  selling  would  throw 
many  out  of  employment,  and  that  it  is  Labor's  aim  to  em- 
ploy as  many  as  possible.  Hence  the  unions  have  special- 
ized labor,  and  forbidden  the  plumber  to  touch  the  carpen- 
ter's hammer;  and  forbidden  the  carpenter  to  stop  a  leak, 
however  trivial,  that  will  put  a  dollar  in  the  plumber's  pocket. 
Suppose  we  grant  it.  What  follows?  This  only,  that  Labor 
does  not  wish  the  evil  remedied.  It  wants  all  this  unnec- 
essary expense  to  be  incurred  for  Labor's  profit.  It  imagines 
that  the  public  is  being  fleeced  for  Labor's  special  benefit, 
that  the  super-added  expense  is  a  pure  gain  for  itself.  It  in- 
creases its  membership  by  fostering  those  that  divide  the 
waste.    Then  let  Labor  honestly  admit  that  it  is  responsible 

[55] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

for  the  high  cost  of  Uving  and  not  cast  the  slur  of  profiteer- 
ing on  others,  since  this  very  thing  is  profiteering  on  a  gigan- 
tic scale.  It  is  demanding  that  biUions  be  paid  for  unneces- 
sary labor.  And  when  from  being  Labor  it  turns  Consumer, 
let  it  patiently  bear  the  consequent  loss  of  money,  consid- 
ering it  as  its  contribution  to  Labor's  welfare.  But  we  do 
not  think  that  if  our  principle  were  applied,  the  evils  appre- 
hended by  the  objection  would  follow.  People  would  turn 
to  other  occupations  more  useful.  Similar  assertions  have 
been  made  again  and  again  and  as  often  have  been  refuted 
by  facts,  whenever  machinery  has  been  introduced  to  super- 
sede manual  work.  What  would  become  of  weavers,  it  was 
asked,  if  machinery  were  introduced  into  weaving?  Of 
farm  help,  if  into  farming?  Of  carriers,  if  into  transporta- 
tion? Of  typesetters,  if  into  printing?  I  would  never  end 
were  I  to  continue  the  list.  Yet  machinery  has  been  ap- 
plied to  all  of  these,  not  to  the  detriment,  but  to  the 
benefit  of  Labor.  In  the  rearrangement  those  that  were  not 
needed  turned  their  activities  into  other  channels  to  the  ad- 
vantage of  humanity.  It  was  like  throwing  a  stone  into  a 
brook:  there  was  a  splash  for  the  moment,  then  the  waters 
closed  around  it,  even  sang  as  they  passed  it,  and  danced 
down  into  the  valley  as  clear  and  limpid  and  joyous  as  ever. 
And  here  the  benefit  would  be  even  greater  than  when  ma- 
chinery took  the  place  of  hands,  for  then  the  laborers  super- 
seded were  mere  normal  producers  and  consumers;  here  they 
are  not  producers  but  abnormal  consumers.  The  change 
then  would  be  of  abnormal  consumers  into  normal  producers 
by  a  diverting  of  unprofitable  energy  into  profitable  channels. 
Croakers  will  croak  because  it  is  their  nature  to  croak.     They 

[56] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

make  the  night  hideous  with  their  discord,  but  the  sun  rises 
iust  the  same  in  the  morning  to  flood  the  earth  with  its 
radiance.  If  prophecy  of  evil  would  have  ended  the  world, 
it  would  have  gone  out  of  business  long  ago.  Unnecessary 
work  is  wasted  work,  and  wasted  energy  is  loss  of  efficiency. 
Nature  wastes  neither  materials  nor  effort,  as  we  have  pre- 
viously asserted.  The  principle  is  so  important  that  we  may 
be  allowed  to  again  illustrate  it.  To  the  ordinary  eye  the 
burning  of  a  log  is  merely  the  using  up  of  the  wood  to  obtain 
heat  by  liberating  stored  energy  donated  by  the  sun.  The 
smoke  and  gases  that  escape  through  the  chimney,  and  the 
ashes  thrown  out  into  the  field,  are  to  the  unscientific  mere 
waste.  Not  so  in  Nature's  scheme.  Her  magic  hand 
gathers  the  gases  of  the  air  and  mingles  the  ashes  with  the 
soil,  and,  with  the  liberated  energy  again  made  available, 
she  builds  up  new  logs  out  of  the  seeming  waste  of  the  old. 
In  the  utilizing  of  matter  and  energy  she  is  one  hundred  per 
cent  efficient.  Not  an  atom  of  material,  not  a  spark  of 
energy,  escapes  her. 

Nature  is  bounteous  and  has  spread  out  a  whole  world 
of  material  before  us  that  we  may  adapt  it  to  our  needs  and 
comforts.  No  nation  in  the  world  has  been  so  favored  as 
ours,  not  only  in  the  abundance  of  raw  material  of  every 
type  lavishly  stored  up  for  us,  but  stored  in  a  climate  spe- 
cially adapted  to  the  exercise  of  energy.  She  has  given  us 
the  sturdiest  race  on  earth,  as  was  proved  in  the  late  war. 
So  favored,  there  is  no  reason,  if  we  are  but  true  to  ourselves 
and  Nature,  why  we  should  not  take  the  lead  among  nations 
and  keep  it  for  all  time.  Abundance,  however,  has  added  its 
part  in  making  us  wasteful.    We  have  not  been  compelled, 

[57] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

as  I  stated  before,  to  be  economical.  If  we  practised 
the  thrift  that  Old  World  conditions  made  a  necessity  to  its 
peoples,  if  we  used  all  of  our  energies  for  useful  production, 
if  we  eUminated  wasteful  effort,  it  would  not  take  many 
centuries  to  develop  our  country  to  its  fullest  possibilities. 
Our  very  Government,  prodigal  as  at  is,  could  be  supported 
on  our  waste.  Why  neglect  what  Nature  has  given  us.^^ 
Why  not  evolve  the  useless  consumer  into  the  useful  pro- 
ducer that  we  may  call  all  our  potentialities  into  play?  Our 
public  lands  would  be  settled  by  a  thrifty  race,  and  many, 
who,  now  spoiled  by  the  example  of  our  wastefulness,  fill  the 
alleys  of  our  congested  cities,  would  be  nerved  to  take  up 
life's  struggle  and  become  contented  in  the  new  opportunities 
afforded  them.  The  lack  of  the  small  capital  needed  keeps 
many  chained  to  an  unhappy  and  degraded  life.  They  are 
of  races  who  have  tilled  the  soil  for  ages,  and  whose  wealth 
consisted  of  a  few  acres  of  land  no  better,  if  as  good  as  our 
own,  on  which  generation  after  generation  lived,  proud  of 
the  Uttle  home  that  sheltered  them.  What  better  invest- 
ment for  the  Government  than  a  loan  to  such  as  these?  Our 
raw  materials  would  be  developed,  our  production  acceler- 
ated and  increased.  The  probable  loss  would  be  extremely 
small  through  failure  or  dishonesty — perhaps  two  per  cent. 
Were  our  loss  even  a  billion,  which  is  not  probable,  our  na- 
tional wealth  would  increase  twenty-five  bilhons  in  ten  years, 
with  an  increase  of  a  healthy  population  and  an  immense 
revenue  in  governmental  taxes. 

Present  production  is  strained  to  the  utmost  to  supply 
the  demands  at  home  and  abroad,  and  will  be  so  strained 
during  the  period  of  reconstruction.    As  production  will 

[58] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning, 

increase  in  other  countries,  demand  for  our  products  will 
naturally  diminish.  With  the  same  production  united  to 
diminished  demand,  the  price  must  fall  and  living  become 
cheaper.  The  relation  of  supply  and  demand  regulates 
price.  Plenty  makes  the  thing  easily  obtainable:  many  have 
it.  If  it  exceeds  demand,  it  becomes  a  drug  on  the  market 
and  is  disposed  of,  not  rarely,  as  a  sacrifice.  If  diamonds 
were  as  plentiful  as  beans,  they  would  be  less  valuable  than 
beans,  for  these  latter  nourish  life  and  diamonds  do  not. 
The  world  is  at  present  in  our  debt.  During  the  war  our 
materials  and  labor  were  so  much  in  demand  that  they 
transferred  the  balance  of  credit  to  our  side.  The  money  of 
the  world  flowed  into  our  coffers,  and  what  we  have  lent  will 
come  back  in  the  labor-products  of  the  various  peoples. 
Their  efforts  for  us  will  repay  our  efforts  for  them.  They 
must  upbuild  themselves  meanwhile  and  supply  their  own 
necessities.  But  inevitably  a  balance  will  be  struck,  their 
products  will  have  paid  the  debt,  and,  exceeding  home  de- 
mand, will  enter  our  markets  as  simple  competitors.  The 
situation,  therefore,  will  be  this:  We  have  over-produced  to 
provide  for  them,  and  now  that  they  can  provide  for  them- 
selves their  surplus  will  naturally  make  its  way  to  our  shores. 
The  double  surplus  will  glut  our  markets  and  many  now 
employed  will  be  discharged.  Labor  should  make  hay  while 
the  sun  shines  and  not  lose  the  golden  opportunity  in  bick- 
erings and  strikes.  Nature  presents  the  chance,  man  must 
avail  himself  of  it.  She  will  not  force  compliance.  Nature 
gave  Ajax  his  physical  forces.     He  had  to  use  them. 

The  tendency  of  certain  classes  has  been  to  turn  up  their 
noses  at  Labor.    They  forget  that  all  they  have  is  due  to 

[59] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

Labor,  labor  mental  or  physical,  of  themselves  or  their  fore- 
fathers. If  what  they  have  is  not  due  to  labor  but  to  theft 
from  the  people  or  the  Government,  their  scorn  should  be  a 
boomerang  on  themselves.  This  class  pride  most  intense 
in  those  who  have  least  reason  for  it,  is  responsible  for  many 
inroads  on  our  efficiency.  What  is  looked  down  upon  is 
naturally  avoided.  We  all  have  our  self-respect  and  pride. 
We  may  not  care  for  the  open  approval  of  others,  conscious 
that  we  are  doing  right  and  content  with  our  condition,  but 
contempt  hurts  all  and  is  cheerfully  borne  by  the  exceptional 
few.  We  avoid  it  if  we  can  and  submit  from  sheer  necessity 
when  we  can't.  When  necessity  ceases  our  submission 
ceases  with  the  necessity.  And  yet  human  life  is  such  and 
human  needs  are  so  varied  that  either  life  cannot  exist  at  all 
or  cannot  exist  comfortably  without  the  performance  of 
offices  humble  in  themselves.  Take  the  cook,  for  instance. 
Who  more  needful  for  human  existence?  We  need  food 
several  times  a  day.  Food  in  turn  needs  proper  preparation. 
The  appetite  is  apathetic,  the  stomach  in  rebellion,  the  nerves 
fussy  and  irritable,  if  proper  food  be  lacking.  With  internal 
discord,  how  can  we  have  external  peace?  The  cook  is 
really  the  master  of  the  world,  while  we,  in  our  short-sight- 
edness, foolishly  look  down  on  him.  Nature  tells  us  it 
should  not  be  so.  The  artist  who  charms  the  eye  stands 
high  in  the  social  scale ;  the  musician  who  with  the  seductive- 
ness of  his  melodies,  wooes  the  ear;  the  perfume  maker  who 
gratifies  the  sense  of  smell;  the  maker  of  soft  fabrics  grateful 
to  the  touch;  all  are  held  in  honor.  By  what  principle  of 
common  sense  is  the  cook  excluded  who  appeals  to  the 
sense  of  taste?     This  sense  is,  in  fact,  more  intimately 

[601 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

connected  with  material  life  than  any  of  the  others,  and  in 
itself  is  nobler  than  the  sense  of  touch.  It  is  even  taken 
in  our  language  as  a  standard  for  artist,  and  musician,  and 
perfumer,  and  designer  of  our  fashions,  for  no  condemnation 
is  more  severe  than  to  say  that  a  thing  is  not  in  good  taste. 
As  a  sense,  therefore,  it  has  no  reason  to  hang  its  head. 
Those,  then,  that  cater  to  it  should  participate  in  its  honor; 
and  if  we  followed  the  dictates  of  Nature  it  would  not  be 
so  hard  to  find  good  cooks. 

We  often  think  we  are  following  Nature  when  we  are 
merely  submitting  to  the  slavery  of  custom.  It  is  hard  to 
cast  off  the  fetters  of  custom  and  get  into  the  line  of  real 
progress.  The  German  soldier  trained  in  the  goose-step 
carries  it  with  him  into  ordinary  life.  A  farmer,  writing  on 
"Daylight  Saving,"  said  that  the  good  old  sun-time  he  had  al- 
ways followed  was  good  enough  for  him,  and  that  he  saw  no 
reason  for  changing  his  methods  in  the  interests  of  the  rail- 
roads or  anybody  else.  He  was  not  aware  that  probably  in 
all  his  life  he  had  never  used  the  true  sun-time.  What 
farmer  has  ever  bothered  himself  about  the  exact  meridian 
of  his  farm  or  worried  over  the  fact  that  with  every  step  east 
or  west  the  true  meridian  changed.  As  a  practical  man  he 
adopted  a  practical  rule  without  bothering  about  astronom- 
ical exactness.  The  practical  principle  he  adopted  was  the 
practical  principle  advocated  by  the  Government.  The 
scale  was  larger,  the  principle  the  same.  The  variations  of 
true  time  were  ehminated  within  certain  areas  in  favor  of 
common  convenience.  In  1882  the  Government  divided  the 
country  into  various  sections  and  standardized  the  time  for 
each,  to  the  immense  advantage  of  all.     Fixed  standards 

[61] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

replaced  uncertainties,  and  though  they  could  not  eliminate 
the  uncertainties  of  individual  watches,  they  estabUshed  that 
by  which  these  uncertainties  could  be  known  and  regulated. 
The  railroads,  to  whom  time  is  a  matter  of  vital  importance, 
welcomed  the  reform.  The  public,  beUeving  itself  less  in- 
terested, moved  slowly.  Two  hour-hands  were  used  on  the 
clocks,  one  to  indicate  standard  time,  the  other  to  indicate 
popular  time.  The  latter  was  called  sun-time,  but,  as  we 
have  seen,  so  called  by  common  error.  Like  the  farmer, 
people  were  not  going  to  change  in  favor  of  the  railroads  or 
anybody  else.  It  took  time  to  change  them.  They  awoke 
finally  to  the  appreciation  of  the  fact  that  they  were  the 
beneficiaries,  and  clocks  had  henceforth  but  one  hour-hand, 
the  hour-hand  of  standard  time.  Like  the  people  at  large  when 
the  innovation  was  first  introduced,  the  farmer  now  objects 
because  he  fancies  that  the  regulation  of  time  is  a  tampering 
with  his  rights.  There  is  not  a  shadow  of  infringement. 
He  can  regulate  his  day  to  suit  himself.  The  clock  marks  six. 
He  can  begin  his  day  an  hour  earlier  or  an  hour  later  and  dis- 
tribute the  day  to  meet  his  personal  needs.  The  law  leaves 
him  perfectly  free.  It  is  a  common  convenience  established 
for  the  whole  people.  He  is  no  more  obliged  to  use  it  than 
he  is  to  use  tractors  if  he  prefers  his  one-horse  plow,  or  his 
six-horse,  whichever  it  may  be.  In  sun-time  there  is  an  hour's 
difference  between  Ohio  and  Nebraska,  yet  the  standard 
clocks  of  the  farmers  in  both  states  mark  the  same  identical 
time.  Neither,  however,  has  experienced  any  inconven- 
ience, for  the  sunhght  is  the  same  however  it  be  marked, 
and  each  one  uses  it  to  suit  himself.  Neither  farmer  has 
ever  complained  about  hardships  inflicted  by  the  system. 

[62] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

But  when  President  Wilson  proposed  that  ''Daylight 
Saving"  be  continued,  the  farmers  were  up  in  arms.  The 
plow-share  was  turned  into  the  political  sword  and  the  cita- 
del of  Congress  stormed.  The  direct  benefit  was  for  the  city 
people.  What  benefited  the  city  injured  the  country  inter- 
ests, they  said.  Nothing  more  foolish.  The  city  lives  on 
the  products  of  the  country.  The  city,  therefore,  cannot  be 
benefited  without  benefiting  the  country.  The  farmer 
thought  it  could,  and  as  he  considered  that  he  was  entitled 
to  "a  pound  of  flesh,"  he  looked  around  for  good,  racy,  well- 
fed  flesh,  and  so  got  Congress'  "goat."  Is  it  a  case  of  mere 
thoughtlessness,  or  pure,  unadulterated,  short-sighted  sel- 
fishness? Nature  gave  the  farmer  the  sun-light  clock, 
which,  without  inconvenience,  he  can  always  use.  The  case 
is  not  the  same  in  the  city.  Not  that  it  is  not  the  same  sun 
that  shines,  or  that  the  sun  shines  differently,  but  that  city 
conditions  are  different,  and  that  comfort,  convenience  and 
economy  demand  another  standard.  The  farmer's  business 
is  more  individual  and  is  simpler.  He  is  little  concerned 
with  what  his  neighbor  does — when  he  rises,  or  works,  or 
goes  to  bed.  But  city  business  is  an  intricate  maze  of  allied 
and  intertwined  efforts,  and  so  it  must  foUow  other  rules. 
The  city  man  depends  on  his  neighbor  in  a  score  of  ways  and 
is  impotent  without  him.  It  was  said  of  old,  "A  brother 
helped  by  a  brother  is  like  a  strong  city."  Modern  life  has 
made  the  converse  true:  "A  strong  city  is  a  brother  helped 
by  a  brother."  The  farmers  who  need  clocks  mainly  that 
when  they  deal  with  the  railroads  they  may  time  them- 
selves with  the  railroads,  protest  against  an  improvement 
highly  important  to  city   folk    who  need   clocks  to  time 

[63] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning, 

themselves  with  one  another,  and  whose  energies  must  ab- 
solutely be  regulated  by  the  clock  and  not  by  the  sun.  But 
human  nature  is,  at  times,  cranky  and  the  crank  often 
works  the  wrong  way.  For  once  Wilson  was  right.  It  is 
a  grievous  crime  against  Nature  to  rob  a  poor  man  of  the 
little  he  has,  and  this  is  what  Congress  did  when  it  robbed 
President  Wilson  of  even  this  moiety  of  glory. 

Nature  has  many  children,  and  for  their  preservation 
and  betterment  divides  them  into  many  groups.  The  in- 
tensely selfish  love  of  a  mother  for  her  child  is  a  clear  example 
of  the  workings  of  one  of  the  basic  principles  of  Nature. 
How  else  could  she  provide  for  the  preservation  of  the  indi- 
vidual who  is  a  tyrant  of  so  many  needs?  Nature  sweetens 
the  labor  that  money  cannot  purchase.  Maternal  love  must 
necessarily  be  selfish,  but  its  very  selfishness  is  ordered  to  a 
higher  end,  the  preservation  of  the  family.  And  here  again 
Nature  shows  her  wisdom.  The  family  in  turn  reacts  and 
becomes  the  preserver  of  its  members.  The  family  is  the 
unit  of  the  community  and  perpetuates  it;  the  community 
defends  and  safeguards  the  family.  The  circle  increases. 
The  community  forms  the  state,  the  state  the  nation,  the 
nation  the  world  of  humanity;  and  each  repays  its  preserva- 
tion by  preservation  in  turn.  But  as  the  circle  widens  each 
individual  is  less  needed  and  his  contribution  is  smaller.  In 
return,  the  benefits  received  because  more  widely  diffused, 
and  as  they  are  less  intimately  directed  to  individual  advan- 
tage they  are  more  apt  to  escape  a  thoughtless  eye.  So  we 
are  inclined  to  overlook  Nature's  benefits  when  they  are 
universal  and  abundant,  as  typified  in  water,  and  air,  and 
simlight.     We  do  not  suffer  from  individual  need  of  them  as 

[64] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

a  rule,  and,  as  a  rule,  forget  the  hand  that  blesses  us.  Hence 
it  is  that  in  proportion  as  our  contribution  to  state  preserva- 
tion becomes  inappreciable,  we  cease  to  connect  state-pres- 
ervation with  self-preservation.  We,  however,  soon  connect 
it  when  state  government  ceases,  as  happens  when  a  calamity 
befalls  a  city  and  unruly  passions  no  longer  feel  the  hand  of 
restraining  authority.  All  of  Nature's  children  form  one  vast 
family,  and  the  duty  of  each  individual  stretches  out  beyond 
community,  and  state  and  nation,  to  the  world  at  large,  to 
each  individual  of  our  common  humanity.  As  the  world  is 
one  family,  children  of  a  common  parent,  every  civilized 
country  should  recognize  its  duties  both  national  and  inter- 
national. The  barbarian  has  the  same  duties  as  civilized  man 
but  his  mind  lacks  the  culture  to  perceive  them.  If,  for  the 
preservation  of  its  national  life,  free  access  to  the  sea  be 
needed,  such  access  should  not  be  denied  by  a  larger  and 
stronger  nation.  A  fair  arrangement  will  be  of  mutual  bene- 
fit, and  honesty  and  justice  are  ever  the  best  policy.  Just  as 
individuals  for  self-preservation  must  preserve  the  family  and 
tribe,  so  must  families  preserve  the  nation.  The  individual 
may  do  so  out  of  well-ordered  self-interest,  and  there  is  noth- 
ing in  reason  against  nations  acting  from  the  same  motive. 
In  fact,  as  self-interest  is  the  most  powerful  incentive  to  in- 
dividual effort,  so  is  self-interest  in  nations  the  strongest  in- 
centive to  national  effort.  Americans,  British,  French,  Ital- 
ians, Germans,  must  look  first  to  their  own  immediate  interests 
according  to  the  law  of  self-preservation.  What  they  have 
to  guard  against  is  the  so  limiting  themselves  to  these  in- 
terests that  they  neglect  the  duties  which  lie  beyond.  Self-love 
is  the  law  of  Nature  and  we  would  not  have  it  otherwise. 

[65] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

When  the  self-preservation  of  one  individual  comes  in 
conflict  with  the  self-preservation  of  another,  the  struggle 
becomes  acute  and  the  fitter  will  survive.  Aggregation  of 
individuals  and  families  into  communities  and  states  tends 
to  lessen  the  frequency  of  such  conflict,  for  where  many  are 
banded  together  mutual  effort  can  provide  more  abundemtly 
for  all,  since  power  united  has  a  wondrous  efficacy  where 
forces  disunited  are  impotent.  It  is  plain  that  in  forming 
this  union  each  element  must  yield  something,  to  be  repaid, 
however,  by  something  immensely  better.  Nature  gives 
nothing  for  nothing.  The  savage  entering  civilization  gives 
up  his  unrestricted  freedom,  but  he  obteuns  in  return  a  peace 
and  security  unattainable  before.  He  has  now  defenders  of 
his  rights,  protectors  against  oppression,  knowledge  and  laws 
of  life  that  render  him  worthy  of  the  name  of  mgui.  The 
League  of  Nations  with  due  limitations,  must  follow  similar 
principles.  Something  of  independent  national  action  must 
be  sacrificed,  leaving  national  existence  and  rights  intact, 
that  disputes  may  not  end  in  war  and  that  peace  universal 
may  reign. 

We  want  peace  for  the  world  because  each  individual 
wishes  peace  for  himself.  The  world  cannot  be  at  war  and 
the  individual  at  peace.  But  peace  is  true  only  when  based 
on  justice.  A  peace  based  on  unfairness  is  a  building  built 
on  quicksands.  We  want  peace  for  the  world,  but  we 
want  peace  for  ourselves,  and  we  are  willing  to  make  efforts 
and  sacrifices  to  obtain  it.  But  we  should  not  be  asked  to 
make  sacrifices  that  would  introduce  a  principle  of  perpetual 
unrest  into  our  own  national  existence.  The  League  of 
Nations  proposed  that   for   the   welfare  of  others  we  bind 

[661 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

ourselves  to  things  in  which  we  have  no  immediate  interest, 
as,  for  example,  that  we  send  our  boys  whenever  called  upon 
to  fight  on  foreign  soil.  We  fought  shoulder  to  shoulder  with 
other  nations  in  the  last  war  because  our  rights  were  assailed 
and  our  citizens  murdered  in  cold  blood.  We  fought  for  our 
national  existence,  because  we  knew  that  German  militarism, 
dominant  in  Europe,  would  have  attacked  us  next.  We 
fought  for  our  very  manhood,  for  Germany  and  the  world 
believed  that,  as  a  peaceful  and  commerce-loving  country, 
we  so  adored  the  almighty  dollar  that  we  had  not  the  red 
blood  to  fight  for  our  rights  and  were  impotent  in  our  unpre- 
paredness.  For  these  reasons  we  fought,  nor  reckoned  we 
the  cost,  and  for  the  same  reasons  we  would  fight  again. 
Humanity  was  benefited,  for  its  cause  was  linked  with  ours. 
As  the  war  progressed,  idealism  forced  itself  into  the  lime- 
light. The  real  causes  that  justified  our  entrance,  and,  in 
virtue  of  which  alone.  Congress  could  according  to  the  con- 
stitution declare  war,  were  huddled  into  a  heap  in  the  comer 
and  platitudes  on  humanity  took  their  place.  So  far  there 
was  no  harm.  We  were  fighting  for  ourselves  and  humanity ; 
preference  did  not  matter;  the  law,  moreover,  curbed  tongue 
and  pen.  Excited  passions  and  alert  suspicion  were  prone 
to  misinterpret  criticism,  however  just,  into  sympathy  for 
the  enemy  and  a  hindrance  to  united  effort.  Idealists  took 
silence  for  consent,  and  the  Paris  conference  that  framed  the 
League  was  held  under  this  stem  hand  of  repression.  The 
other  nations  had  preyed  upon  our  idealism  and  generosity 
during  the  war.  They  were  loth  to  part  with  them  after 
the  war.  In  their  heart  of  hearts  and  in  their  own  selfish- 
ness, we  were  Lady  Bountiful  to  scatter  our  millions  and 

[67] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

Uncle  Easy  Mark  to  listen  to  a  tale  of  woe  which  was  not, 
however,    altogether   without   foundation.     They    clapped 
idealism  on  the  back,  told  it  what  a  good  fellow  it  was,  loaded 
the  dice  and  pocketed  the  profits.     No  wonder  that  a  League 
was  bom  which  meant  every  advantage  to  them,  none  to  us. 
The  law  of  national  self-preservation,  the  first  and  essential 
law  of  national  peace  and  existence,  was  overlooked  in  a 
good-fellowship  that  was  limited  to  goodness  to  themselves. 
It  is  time  to  leave  idealistic  altitudes  and  get  down  to  prac- 
tical fife.     The  mirage  is  beautiful  to  contemplate  but  it  has 
no  substance.     Our  thirty  billions  of  debt  that  will  weigh  us 
down  for  generations,  our  internal  unrest,  our  labor  troubles, 
the  high  cost  of  living,  call  for  our  best  energies  at  home;  and 
while  a  man's  own  household  is  in  disorder,  as  usually  hap- 
pens with  idealists,  it  is  well  to  let  the  affairs  of  others  alone. 
We  do  not  want  another  war.     The  boys  that  came  back 
from  France  do  not  want  it.     The  mothers  that  have  spent 
years  that  seemed  decades  scanning  the  lists  of  the  dead  and 
wounded  and  missing,  fearing  daily  that  some  loved  name 
should  be  found  in  them,  do  not  want  it.     The  wives  and 
mothers  of  those  who  have  made  the  supreme  sacrifice  pray 
earnestly  that  others  may  be  spared  their  agony.     And  yet 
there  are  those  who  would  have  us  waste  the  fives  of  our  boys, 
waste  our  property,  our  peace  and  happiness,  to  promote  the 
selfish  interests  of  peoples  whose  chief  aim  is  to  increase  their 
territory  or  gain  an  economic  advantage  over  their  rivals. 
They  would  like  to  have  us  cats'  paws  to  draw  the  chestnuts 
from  the  fire,  while  they  wink  at  our  simplicity  and  grow  fat 
in  eating  them.     "Let  each  one  attend  to  his  own  business," 
such  is  Nature's  law. 

[68] 


Ajtuc  Defied  the  Lightning. 

Germany,  because  she  had  the  power,  wrongfully  and 
forcibly  took  Alsace  and  Lorraine  from  France,  and  the 
peacemakers  at  Paris  returned  them,  seemingly  in  accord 
with  the  principle  of  the  self-determination  of  nations. 
What  stock  they  took  in  the  principle  their  subsequent  ac- 
tions showed.  Germany  had  also  taken  Shantung  from 
China.  The  offender  was  the  same;  the  theft  less  pardon- 
able, for  Alsace  and  Lorraine  were  countries  adjacent  to 
Germany,  many  of  their  inhabitants  were  of  Teutonic  origin, 
their  incorporation  was  an  additional  defense  to  the  German 
people.  Shantung  was  stolen  merely  because  it  helped  German 
trade  and  gave  it  a  foothold  in  the  Far  East.  The  people 
were  pure  Chinese,  detached  forcibly  from  the  Chinese  re- 
public. Did  the  Peace  Conference  restore  Shantung  to 
China,  even  though  China  was  actually  an  ally  and  had 
helped  in  the  war?  Not  they.  In  giving  back  Alsace  and 
Lorraine,  what  had  moved  them  was  neither  justice  nor  the 
rights  of  peoples  but  the  sheerest  self-interest.  And  this 
principle  of  selfishness  they  applied  to  weak  China,  canon- 
izing in  strong  Japan  what  they  bitterly  condemned  in  strong 
Germany.  What  was  wrong  in  Germany  was  right  in  them 
and  their  allies,  and  with  shameless  inconsistency,  or  rather 
with  the  shameless  consistency  of  self-interest  divorced  from 
justice,  they  gave  Shantung  to  Japan.  And  it  is  with  such 
nations  unrepentant,  nay  openly  glorying  in  their  infamy, 
that  we  are  asked  to  form  a  League  of  Nations  and  fight 
their  battles,  because,  forsooth,  we,  ourselves,  are  too  strong 
for  the  wolves  to  tear.  The  idealism  of  self-determination 
was  coldly  turned  out  of  doors,  and  its  friends,  abandoning 
it,   are  pounding   on  the   door    and   craving   admittance, 

[69] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

yearning  to  enter  even  if  they  have  to  squeeze  through  the 
windows.  Shirt-sleeve  diplomacy,  nay  mere  manly  diplo- 
macy, is  at  a  discount.  Paris  and  London  dictate  the  style. 
Our  boys  gave  their  lives  for  principle.  America  should  see 
that  their  sacrifice  be  not  in  vain. 

Wars  will  ever  be  so  long  as  common  justice  does  not  rule 
the  nations,  and  so  long  as  a  people's  standard  is  sordid  self- 
interest.  Wars  can  alone  end  when  each  is  willing  to  meet 
the  other  in  a  spirit  of  fair  compromise,  each  yielding  for  the 
greater  good  of  peace  some  minor  advantages  to  themselves. 
The  stickler  for  rights  is  always  in  hot  water.  Wars  should 
end  by  common  agreement  founded  on  justice  and  not  on  a 
scrap  of  paper.  If  men,  however,  will  not  be  ruled  by  rea- 
son, it  is  not  impossible  that  Nature,  like  a  justly  irate  mother 
may,  through  fear,  force  them  to  be  good.  Invention  may 
be  the  scourge  that  she  holds  in  her  hand.  It  is  not  beyond 
the  realm  of  possiblity  that  a  poisonous  gas  should  be  in- 
vented, so  deadly  that  in  a  single  day  a  thousand  aeroplanes 
would  work  such  havoc  that  nations  must  either  be  destroyed 
or  come  to  terms.  Such  invention  would  have  the  effect, 
moreover,  of  reducing  greatly  the  disproportion  between 
large  and  small  nations  just  as  the  introduction  of  fire-arms 
reduced  the  lordly  knight  to  the  level  of  the  peasant  soldier. 
The  element  of  might,  so  powerful  in  the  hands  of  the  un- 
scrupulous, would  no  longer  be  the  sole  heritage  of  the  fav- 
ored few.  It  would  be  common  to  all  and  so  deadly  that  as 
the  survival  of  our  very  race  would  be  at  stake  terror  would 
force  mankind  to  the  observance  of  mutual  agreements  and 
justice.  Not  the  noblest  motive,  it  is  true,  but  in  certain  cases 
the  most  efficient.     Scraps  of  paper  would  be  out  of  fashion. 

170] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning, 

Nature,  through  reason,  tells  her  children  how  degrad- 
ing war  is  when  waged  for  the  love  of  war.  It  is  a  last  re- 
source against  an  unjust  aggressor  when  important  rights 
and  liberties  are  at  stake  and  when  there  is  no  other  way  of 
defending  them.  The  glory  of  militarism,  save  for  defensive 
purposes,  is  human  shame  and  crime.  A  nation  sends  forth 
her  armies  to  kill  the  people  of  another  nation  and  bids  them 
kill  as  many  as  they  can.  He  who  succeeds  in  killing  most 
becomes  a  hero  and  honors  are  heaped  upon  him.  There  is 
nothing  more  repugnant  to  man  than  the  shedding  of  human 
blood.  Even  in  defense  of  our  life  we  hate  to  kill  and  do  so 
only  when  all  other  means  have  failed.  It  is  barbarism  to 
sacrifice  life  for  mere  aggrandizement.  It  is  murder,  whole- 
sale murder,  to  force  a  war  that  can  in  honor  be  avoided,  and 
the  militarist  who  provokes  conflict  cannot  be  punished  too 
severely.  Historians  unthinkingly  have  sadly  injured  our 
race  in  placing  on  the  pinnacle  of  glory  men  who  were  mere 
murderers  and  robbers  on  a  gigantic  scale,  and  whose  names, 
instead  of  praise,  merit  the  execration  of  humanity.  But  it 
is  the  same  paradoxical  spirit  that  applauds  itself  for  its  jus- 
tice in  putting  the  petty  thief  into  jail,  and  putting  the  mil- 
lionaire swindler  into  a  magnificent  palace.  The  slaying  of 
an  individual  is  murder,  the  murder  of  milHons  is  virtue. 

Many  are  heartily  in  favor  of  a  League  of  Nations.  Ajax 
would  have  bitterly  opposed  it.  They  are  in  favor  of  it  be- 
cause they  consider  it  synonymous  with  a  League  of  Peace. 
To  be  such  in  reality,  there  should  be  a  common  and  high 
standard  of  civilization.  Such  is  not  the  condition  of  the 
world  at  present.  The  nations  are  in  all  stages  of  civiliza- 
tion.    The  standard  in  Europe  is  different  than  that  in  Asia. 

[71] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

Each  people  has  its  own  criterion  of  civilization  and  progress. 
America  has  advanced  rapidly,  more  rapidly  than  any  other 
nation,  since  less  hampered  by  old  ways  and  traditions.  Any 
attempt  at  a  union  of  nations  must  take  into  allowance  these 
facts.  We  must  not  allow  our  normal  progress  to  be  im- 
peded and  held  back  by  less  progressive  nations.  When 
people  are  tied  together  their  pace  is  regulated  by  the  slower. 
The  laggard  resents  being  forced  to  a  more  rapid  pace,  espe- 
cially if  he  believes  that  there  is  no  reason  for  hurry.  Nations 
hide-bound  in  traditions  do  not  thank  us  for  our  efforts  to 
free  them.  Our  viewpoint  and  theirs  is  different,  and  it  is 
hard  to  bring  them  to  ours. 

We  have  not  to  go  back  so  many  years  to  live  in  times 
when  Americans  found  only  quill  pens  in  the  leading  hotels 
of  London  and  typewriters  were  a  curiosity.  We  have  not 
to  go  back  at  all  to  find  conveniences  that  are  common  even 
to  the  ordinary  among  us  lacking  in  Europe  to  classes  that 
are  considered  as  living  in  luxury.  It  is  easy,  therefore,  to 
fathom  why  national  jealously  is,  at  times,  so  strong  against 
us,  and  why  older  nations  begrudge  us  our  commanding 
position  in  the  world. 

Primitive  civilization  was  centered  in  Asia.  Thence  it 
passed  through  many  nations,  westward,  westward,  till 
Greece  and  afterwards  Rome  became  the  centers  of  culture. 
Westward  it  still  traveled  until  the  ocean  stopped  it  for  a 
time,  when  it  leaped  the  ocean,  in  accordance  with  its  law. 
It  was  in  a  wilderness  that  it  took  up  its  abode  and  its  palace 
was  a  log-house.  But  it  breathed  the  invigorating  air  of 
freedom  and  new  life  pulsed  in  its  veins.  It  had  l£inguished 
in  the  effete  monarchies  of  the  Old  World :  it  would  show  what 

[72] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning, 

it  could  do  in  the  New.  It  had  to  look  forward  some  cen- 
turies, but  age  had  given  it  wisdom.  It  had  a  domain, 
materials,  a  race  such  as  it  never  had  before  with  which  to 
build  its  empire.  It  was  for  once  satisfied  with  its  surround- 
ings. No  wonder  that  we  are  satisfied  with  its  work.  Its 
children  would  be  called  Provincials  by  those  who,  in  reality, 
were  not  even  worthy  themselves  to  be  called  Provincials, 
as  the  limits  of  town,  or  village  or  city  in  which  they  had  been 
bom  usually  limited  their  horizon.  A  journey  of  twenty 
miles  was  the  event  of  a  lifetime,  and  double  the  distance, 
often  less,  wrought  a  change  even  in  their  very  speech.  The 
European,  circumscribed  by  his  immediate  surroundings, 
was  commonly  only  an  approach  to  a  Provincial.  But  ig- 
norance was  bliss,  and  he  ascribed  his  own  limitations  to  us. 
On  landing  in  New  York  if  he  did  not  have  to  fight  the  In- 
dians on  his  way  up  to  the  Waldorf-Astoria,  he  had  to  be 
careful  to  escape  tomahawk  and  scalping  knife  if  he  ventured 
without  the  walls  of  the  city.  Our  "Wild  West"  moving 
pictures,  doubtless,  helped  the  hallucination. 

But  civilization  had  done  its  work  well  and  Europe  awoke 
from  its  dream  and  found  an  army  of  some  two  millions  on 
its  shores.  CiviHzation  had  crossed  the  water  again  to  show 
what  it  had  effected,  and  millions  were  behind  to  follow  if 
needed.  They  were  not  needed.  The  sneers  of  Germany 
had  been  answered  and  its  eagle,  pitted  against  ours,  turned 
and  fled.  The '  'Watch  on  the  Rhine' '  was  no  longer  effective. 
America  could  cross  the  Rhine.  Xerxes  with  a  bridge  of 
boats  had  crossed  the  Hellespont  and  ages  recounted  the 
wonder  of  the  exploit.  America  crossed  the  Atlantic  with 
a  greater  army,  provisioned  and  armed,  in  the  teeth  of  the 

173] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

deadly  submarine.  "It  is  impossible,"  said  Europe.  "Be- 
hold it  accomplished,"  was  America's  answer.  Europe  had 
aided  in  the  transportation  for  its  own  immediate  benefit. 
For  this  benefit  we  had  to  pay.  We  crossed  the  fields  of 
France  and  died  to  save  them  for  the  nation.  France  would 
have  taxed  us  for  the  crossing.  But  we  invited  sordidness 
by  our  over-generosity.  The  spirit  that  plucked  our  tourists 
would  pluck  us  as  a  nation.  Will  nothing  open  our  eyes.^ 
The  clouds  of  war,  the  confusion  of  battle  have  passed.  We 
must  pause  to  breathe  and  find  out  where  we  stand.  We  live 
in  a  practical,  not  idealistic,  world;  and  in  practical  Nature 
action  is  followed  by  a  corresponding  reaction.  Such  is 
Nature's  law.  Over-generosity  can  ruin  the  nation.  Sym- 
pathy we  must  have  for  others,  but  we  must  not  forget  those 
that  are  our  own.  Other  countries  have  suffered  untold 
hardships  during  the  war.  We  have  not  escaped  unscathed, 
and  though,  like  our  boys  on  the  battlefield,  we  bear  our 
wounds  unmurmuringly,  we  should  not  neglect  them.  We 
must  not  let  our  hearts  run  away  with  our  heads.  Return- 
ing soldiers  tell  us  that  France's  sufferings  are  less  dire  than 
they  have  been  painted.  The  French  were  not  nearly  as 
willing  to  make  sacrifices  as  we,  and  the  middle  classes  in 
France  are  materially  better  off  than  ever  before,  owing  to 
the  billions  of  money  left  among  them  by  the  foreign  soldiers. 
We  must  not,  we  repeat,  listen  merely  to  sentiment.  Nature 
has  given  us  judgment  as  the  rule  of  life. 

We  hear  of  apparent  ingratitude  in  the  AlHes  towards  us. 
It  is  to  be  expected.  A  peacemaker  that  enters  into  a  neigh- 
bor's quarrel,  however  good  his  intentions  and  however  up- 
right his  conduct,  generally  gets  the  worst  of  it.    Still  we 

1741 


Ajfix  Defied  the  Lightning. 

have  no  cause  to  regret  our  action.  We  were  forced  to  fight 
for  ourselves  as  well  as  for  Europe,  and  good  will  ultimately 
result,  as  resulted  in  Cuba  and  the  Philippines.  Nature  has 
her  varying  seasons.  The  cold  of  winter  must  not  dishearten 
us.  Every  winter  is  followed  by  spring.  Let  us  devote  our 
energies  to  ourselves  and  leave  the  rest  to  the  calm  decision 
of  the  future.  Nature  and  Time  may  not  move  fast  enough 
for  our  impatience,  but  they  know  their  business.  We  did 
not  seek  popularity  and  can  get  on  without  it.  We  told 
the  world  that  we  wanted  nothing,  and  it  gave  us  less. 

All  human  institutions,  therefore,  as  we  stated  at  the 
beginning  of  our  essay,  must  conform  themselves  to  Nature's 
plan.  We  cannot  change  it,  devoid  as  we  are  of  all  control. 
She  has  made  and  enforces  the  Supreme  law.  Not  in  con- 
flict with  her  but  in  conformity  is  our  path  of  progress.  In- 
telligent study  of  Nature's  methods  will  solve  our  problems; 
even,  as  we  said,  the  problem  of  Capital  and  Labor,  which 
is  ever  recurrent,  due  to  the  violation  of  Nature's  laws  on 
one  side  or  the  other.  Let  Nature's  fairness  be  our  rule. 
Troubles,  like  shadows,  fade  in  a  counter  light,  and  the  shad- 
ows of  this  problem  which  hang  ominously  over  our  national 
peace  at  present  will  fade  forever,  if  the  counter  light  of  in- 
telligent effort  and  reasonable  compromise  be  thrown  upon  it. 

The  cloud  that  hung  over  the  plain  and  that  Ajax  defied, 
bore  in  its  bosom  blessings  untold  for  the  responsive  earth. 
Let  Nature  have  her  way  and  she  will  shower  her  blessings 
upon  us  through  all  the  years  to  come.  The  atmosphere 
will  be  purified,  the  birds  resume  their  notes  of  gladness,  ob- 
jects will  be  seen  in  a  clearer  light,  the  blue  arch  of  heaven 
will  smile  upon  us,  the  dust  of  conflict  will  be  laid  and  peace 

[75] 


Ajax  Defied  the  Lightning. 

reign.  Let  us  work  with  Nature  to  sweeten  human  life. 
She  welcomes,  nay  pleads  for,  our  aid,  yet  leaves  the  choice 
to  us.  How  much  better  to  strew  hfe's  pathways  with  her 
flowers  than  to  line  them  with  poison  oak  or  ivy,  or  with 
thistles  and  brambles  obstruct  the  way.  Let  our  kindliness, 
like  Nature's,  live  in  the  present,  for  we  should  ever  remember 
that  our  human  hearts  prize  far  more  highly  a  simple  bud  of 
spring,  though  plucked  at  random,  while  we  can  know  and 
love  the  hand  that  gives  it,  than  the  rarest  blooms  however 
artistically  blended  that  waste  their  fragrance  on  our  unap- 
preciative  grave. 

But  most  of  all,  and  this  is  of  the  highest  moment,  let  us 
not  like  Ajax  seek  to  change  benignant  into  mahgnant  forces, 
or  Zip!  Zip!  Crack!  Unworthy  children  of  Nature,  we  alone 
are  responsible  for  the  result. 


76] 


RETURN        CIRCULATION  DEPARTMENT 

TO  ^^        Main  Library  •  198  Main  Stacks 


LOAN  PERIOD  1      2 

HOME  USE    Mni    r- 

3 

4           WriLh 

6 

ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS. 

Renewls  and  Recharges  may  be  made  4  days  prior  to  the  due  date. 

Books  may  be  Renewed  by  calling  642-3405. 

SEUT  ON  ilBUE  as  stamped  below 

MAY  ^  n  W^7 

IJMi    J  U    10%/f 

U.  C.  BERKELEY 

FORM  NO.  DD6 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  BERKELEY 
BERKELEY  CA  94720-6000 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


